Hunters of Light
by Matteoarts
Summary: Five years after the disappearance of three legendary Guardians, a mystery transmission sparks a chain of events that nobody expects. With the abrupt discovery of a child of light, people whose souls are created by the Traveler itself, it is her mission to track down the source of the message, and unveil the answers to bring balance to the light and the dark.
1. Prologue

_As a note from the author, I would like to point out that this story is a sequel to my last story, and the second in the series I'm writing, "Guardians Never Die". If you haven't read that one yet, I would highly encourage you to do so by looking at my stories on my profile page, by googling the title "Guardians Never Die fanfiction", or by entering this link into your URL bar ( s/11378652/1/Guardians-Never-Die) since there will be characters and events referenced from the last story that you won't understand unless you've read it. Without further ado, enjoy!_

* * *

The Speaker walked into the Hall of Guardians, here to speak with the Vanguards. All of their faces were solemn, though he could tell they were truly filled with anxiety and excitement as well. He motioned for them to speak. "You called me here, so what is the purpose of this gathering?"

Ikora Rey swallowed nervously, and then said, "We've received a message, Speaker. A transmission originating from Venus, deep within its mantle." The Speaker tilted his head slightly. "That's quite peculiar indeed. I thought that our scouts had all but left the planet?" Zavala nodded. "They did. And that's not the half of it. The transmission consisted of two parts; the first was a message that simply repeats once it has ended. Listen." He placed an audio device in the center of the table. and let it play.

The Speaker listened intently, trying to make sense of the words. He wished he could say that he recognized the voice, but the quality was too garbled, and the message itself was barely recognizable. The message ended, and he looked gravely at the Vanguards.

"I had wondered when this day would come. For seven years, I've wondered, trusting that the Traveler would make its intentions known soon." Cayde looked at him curiously. "You mean you knew this would happen?" The Speaker shook his head. "Not like this, no. But I had a suspicion of something else. On the day we returned the Spark to the Traveler, it spoke to me. It told me that the Balance would come, that another child of light would be revealed." Ikora gasped as Cayde looked away muttering, "My God…"

"And you believe this… individual, that the message names is them? That it is indeed the truth, that they are the Balance?" questioned Zavala. The Speaker nodded. "I have no doubt of that."

Cayde clapped his hands together. "Alright then, in that case there's no time to waste. We need to find this child of light fast. I'll send some scouts to ask around the city, search for this person. When we find them, you'll need to take them in Zavala." The Titan Vanguard nodded. "That seems like a reasonable plan."

"What was the second part of the message?" asked the Speaker, confused. "You said there were two components. Cayde nodded, "Ah, yes. Well you see, this bit is kinda difficult to explain, and we're a bit hesitant about actually using it." "Using it?" questioned the Speaker. Ikora spoke, "Speaker, the message consists of something we're not quite sure how to deal with at the moment."

She explained it to him, and the Speaker realized the gravity of the situation. "Oh my. I understand your hesitation." He paused. "But there can be room for pause no longer. I want you to use that, and see what else we can find out." He began walking out of the hall, muttering to himself, "It's been five years. It's time to bring them home."


	2. Traveler's Child

\- "Battle for the Traveler", The City -

* * *

As her world crumbled around her, the young girl ran from the beasts that chased her through the streets. They'd already slaughtered her family and neighbors, but she had run away. Knowing what would happen if she stopped, she ignored the pain in her feet as she sprinted through the cobblestone paths and alleyways. The howls of the four-armed monsters behind her urged her forward, spurring her to go faster.

Finally, she made it to the main street, the street which would take her straight to the tower. She followed the road as the growls and echoes of her pursuers continued to terrify her into action. Suddenly, a large blast of arc energy from a passing Fallen ship impacted against the building to her right, causing it to completely explode in a shower of rock and debris. She was knocked off her feet, and landed several yards to the left, partially obscured in the rubble. She struggled to stand up, but a sharp pain in her foot, likely a broken bone, kept her from moving.

Footsteps slowly approached her from where she'd been running from, and she turned to see several Fallen staring at her. The largest one held two swords humming with energy, tiny sparks crackling in the air. It approached her, and began to raise them for the killing strike. She closed her eyes and held her breath, hoping that she wouldn't see her end coming.

Several gunshots rang out, and she heard the thud of a large mass hitting the ground. Waiting with bated breath, she was surprised to find that no sword came slicing through her abdomen. She tentatively opened her eyes to see the large Fallen on the ground, blood seeping from its chest. The other Fallen had faced the new threat, only to each be peppered with bullets, their heads exploding in gaseous vapor.

She looked to her left to see two humanoid shapes running towards her through the dust and clouds that all the gunfire had caused. As they approached, she saw that they were Guardians. One was a Hunter, his cloak flapping in the air and with white and blue armor. The other was a Warlock, her robes ripped at the bottom, colored white but with carnation pink accents and boots. They saw her lying in the debris, and the Hunter knelt down.

"Hey there. Looked like you were in a tough spot kid." She nodded vigorously to show that she agreed with him. "You saved my life!" He laughed. "Well, that's kind of our job. Are you alright?" She shook her head. "My foot hurts a lot, I can't walk," she said, pointing to her left foot. He nodded. "Alright. Aria, can you lend me a hand here? Possibly broken foot." The Warlock stepped closer, and one of her hands began to glow orange. "Hold still," she instructed, and the girl complied, eager to follow her saviors' commands. The Warlock reached her glowing hand forward until it made contact with her foot, and suddenly the pain disappeared.

"T- Thank you," she stammered, wanting to express her gratitude. The Warlock knelt down next to the Hunter. "It was no trouble, sweetie. Where are your parents? Do you know?" At the mention of her dead mother and father, the girl began to silently cry, tears streaking through the grime and dirt on her face. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean- let's talk about something else. How old are you?" The girl sniffled a bit, but wiped away the tears and held her head up, hoping she looked more impressive than a crying baby. "I'm thirteen, almost fourteen." The Warlock gasped in easily detectable fake surprise. "Wow, you're thirteen? You're very brave for one so young." The girl decided to ignore the fact that this was obviously just meant to make her feel better, since the woman was just trying to help her.

"Ouch, looks like you got tagged badly there," said the Hunter, pointing to the girl's left cheek where a streak of burned and charred skin stretched from the middle up to her temple, leaving an angry red gash in the flesh. She nodded. "One of their orange cannons grazed me here earlier, it burned a lot." The Warlock looked over. "She got tagged by a shrapnel launcher? Imagine if that Captain had aimed even just a few inches more to the left-" The guy held up his hand to stop her. "Not in front of her, she doesn't need to hear that."

He looked at the girl again, and felt like he was analyzing her. He gestured to the mark again. "That's a pretty big scorch mark you've got. Can't say that you'll walk away without a scar on your face, but hey, at least you'll have a cool story, right?" His voice carried a smile with it, and she couldn't help but return it.

One of their Ghost's appeared, the Hunter's. "Matt, Ash is more than a little freaked out that neither you nor Aria are responding to her transmissions on the comms." He stood up quickly. "Shit, I didn't notice the radio hail, I was talking to the kid." He looked up into the sky, as if hoping to see something. "Ash, sorry. Situation got a bit complicated. Gonna need you to meet us over by where we led the other survivors, there's one more that we found." He paused, then nodded. "Understood. We're moving." As he turned back to the girl, a large ship flew overhead, black and shaped like a jet. It began to fly toward the base of the tower which was at the end of the main road.

The Hunter motioned to the girl with his arms. "C'mon, we're gonna get you out of here." She reached out, and he picked her up from under her arms. He bent down slightly, and placed her on his back. She looped her arms around, and held on tightly. "Let's go, Aria!" At a brisk pace, they began running down the main road.

They met no resistance along the way, and within ten minutes, they'd reached the tower. Looking inside the lobby, the girl could see a large number of other people, most of them wearing similarly tattered clothing and sporting injuries of all kinds. The Hunter leaned down, and set her on the road.

"Alright kid, this is the place. Head inside and wait here with the other survivors until the battle is over. Medics will come take care of you and make sure you're not in any more danger." She nodded to show her understanding. He gave her a small salute with one hand as he walked away, a little nod to her before he left. He began to stride towards the ship they'd seen earlier which now hovered twenty feet in the air a few meters away, waiting for him and the Warlock. The aforementioned Warlock also began to walk away, but the girl called out.

"How do you do it? How do you fight the monsters without being afraid?" The Warlock turned, and appeared to ponder the question. "Well, you don't. Every time I go into battle, I'm afraid. Afraid of losing those I care about, about being killed. About other things, some of which are worse than death." Her tone was serious, and the girl held onto every word.

"The trick is, we're always afraid. There's a difference between being fearless and being brave. Being fearless is stupid, it can get you killed if you don't heed signs of danger. But bravery means that you're using your fear to your advantage, and not letting it conquer you." The Warlock nodded. "If you have to be something, be brave." With that, she turned and followed the Hunter over to the ship where a blue light surrounded them, and they disappeared. A second later, the ship took off and began to fly towards the city center.

The girl stood there in awe, admiring her newfound idols. If she were to survive this battle, she knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to become a protector, to be one of the Guardians who fought off the monsters, who others looked up to.

Most of all, she wanted to be brave.

* * *

\- 7 Years Later, Outskirts of the City -

* * *

She sped through the obstacles on the course with the wind whipping her brown short-cut hair behind her. She glanced to the right to see the spectators on the side cheering as she zoomed by on her sparrow. She flashed them a smile, and continued on. One person's sparrow behind her malfunctioned, and began to short out. It nosedived into the dirt, and began flipping through the air, its rider flung off like a cowboy from a bull. She silently cheered as part of the competition was pulled away into the sidelines to avoid being run over.

All she had to do was finish this lap, and the prize would be hers for the taking. The only real rival she had to worry about was Numai, an Awoken female a few years older than her. She'd been racing sparrows since she was a kid, and had much more experience. But there was something that gave her an advantage over Numai, a sort of sense she had when things presented themselves to her. She couldn't explain it other than a natural ability to predict outcomes.

As she rounded the bend, she felt an odd urge to drift to the right and allow Numai to take the inside, usually a move that would be suicide winning-wise. Sh ignored that line of thought, and decided to trust her instincts as they'd steered her right so many times before. Pulling to the right slightly, she gave enough room for Numai to speed up and take the lead by a few feet. The veteran racer turned to look at her as she flew past.

"Thanks for the win, dumbass!" She gave a loud laugh before her vehicle hit a four foot long shard of the exploded sparrow from earlier that had flown clear of its original vehicle, and stuck itself vertically in the dirt on the track. She couldn't remember having made note of it, but apparently she had sensed that it would be there waiting for another sparrow to hit it. Numai's sparrow immediately flipped, throwing her into the dirt and out of the race. Raising her two hands in the air, she piloted the sparrow the remaining twenty feet forward, and accepted the loud cheers that greeted her win.

As several members of the crowd ran onto the track, she walked back over to Numai who was cursing from all the scrapes she'd accumulated in her tumble. The Awoken gave her a withering glare, but she only smirked in reply. "I guess you could say that you got… scorched!"

Numai looked confused, then widened her eyes. "Wait… what?" She shrugged. "You know, because like… I'm Scorch? My racing name? It's a play on words." Numai just looked stunned. "But… that's so _dumb!_ " Scorch jerked her head, taken aback. "What? I thought it was clever!" Number shook her head. "No, making your racing name "Scorch" after your scar was clever. That one-liner? Not so much." The Awoken woman walked away much to the chagrin of Scorch, who stood there dumbfounded. Just when she'd thought that she'd gotten the last word in on Numai, she tore down her catchphrase.

Shaking her head, she walked back toward the crowd of people. The race manager flagged her down. "Hey there, Scorch! Listen, I've got a race for you. Four thousand guaranteed, seven thousand if you win, near 'Messenger's Fall'." He slapped a card into her waiting hand. "That's your money prize for the race, it's got all five thousand on it." She nodded. "Thanks, Jay!" The manager tilted his hat forward in acknowledgement, then turned to address the crowd. "That's all for tonight, folks! One more time, let's hear it for Scorch!"

The crowd of people whooped and cheered, mob mentality forcing each of them to follow the others' example. Scorch smiled, and waved back at them. Deciding it was time for her to head home, she began to walk towards her sparrow, her mode of transport. She held out her hand and said to the air, "Go ahead and store that for later please. I might lose it otherwise." A Ghost popped up in front of her, and scanned it.

"You've really got to learn cooler catchphrases. 'You got scorched'? Not the best idea you've had." She shrugged. "I'll think of something else for next time."

Suddenly, a ship lit up their position, spotlights flooding the area. The symbols on the side indicated that it was from the tower, a task force's transport. Now usually, Scorch was very grateful for the work that the city's task force did in cleaning our Fallen bandits and whatnot, but they were definitely a less than welcome sight here.

"Shit, we've got guards! Everyone, run!" The race manager's voice called out to the crowd from behind her, and the large group began to disperse, people sprinting in every direction but toward the ship. Suddenly a voice began to emit from an external speaker.

"This is the city task force. We are looking for an individual who goes by the name of Scorch. I repeat, we are looking for an individual who goes by the name of Scorch." She stopped in her tracks, and turned to look at the ship. They were looking for her? That couldn't be good. She began to run even faster toward her sparrow, but evidently her moment of hesitation had marked her as their target. Blue grids of light appeared in the air, and with them came Guardians of the city. There were three of them, two of which were Titans sporting the task force emblem. The third was a Warlock with task force robes who stood several feet in front of her, and held out his hand. "Halt!"

The Titans on the side came at her, and attempted to apprehend her. She rolled forward out of their reach, and next to the Warlock. Bringing one hand up, she clocked him in the head with the palm, and with him stunned she ran the last few feet to her sparrow. Hopping on, it started immediately, and she blasted off into the darkness. Being on the outskirts of the city near the wall, she hadn't expected any of the task force to find them. If they were really looking just for her, then whatever it was couldn't be good. Maybe they were here to finally take back Spectre, maybe not. Either way, she wasn't planning to find out.

She thought she'd gotten away before the spotlight found her zooming away on her sparrow once more. Out here in open fields, she couldn't avoid it, and she knew that they were going to track her. Or, at least she thought they would. A crack sounded in the air, and a humming sound steadily grew louder before something finally hit the front of her sparrow. It immediately ceased to work, and she fell onto the ground as it crashed into the dirt. She tried to push herself back up with her hands, but as she got to her knees, she heard the sound of footsteps. Looking up, she made note of the task force Warlock from earlier. Held in his hands was a sniper rifle with a smoking barrel.

"Sorry about that, but we really couldn't allow you to get away. It's taken us a while just to find you here, and we didn't feel like repeating the process. Consider us even for you smacking me in the face." She said nothing, but instead stood up, and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket. He took his helmet off, and held it at his side. He was a male Exo, with a light grey colored face, and glowing green eyes. A black stripe stretched from his forehead up to the top of his face, ending in a triangular point. He waited for her to say something, and then sighed in exasperation. "Look, we're not here to arrest you for illegal sparrow-racing. You can even keep whatever earnings you won, but we really need your help."

This seemed highly suspicious, and she raised one of her eyebrows. "You need my help? With what, ratting out other racers? Because if you think-" He shook his head. "No, this has nothing to do with that." He looked around. "Look, I can't really discuss it here. You're coming with us like it or not, but you can decide to leave later if you're so inclined." Now she was truly curious, because the guard seemed genuine. "I would highly recommend against that," came Spectre's voice.

The Warlock looked around. "Who was that?" The Ghost appeared, and narrowed his eye at the Exo. "That would be me." The Exo seemed sincerely confused. "Wait, you have a Ghost? But how-?" He shook his head to clear his mind. "Never mind, it's not important. Just brace yourself for a transmat." She was about to open her mouth to ask something before blue light surrounded them, and she fell onto the floor of the ship that had been waiting to recover them. A pair of magnetic handcuffs were unexpectedly placed on her wrists before she could resist.

"Hey, I thought you said that I wasn't being arrested!" He nodded. "Don't worry, you're not. But I don't trust you to not make a move to escape. Just wait until we've had a long chat with the Vanguards, and those babies will come right off." She sat back down on the deck of the ship, resigning to the strange turn of events that had just occurred to her life.

-X-

The Warlock led her down the steps into a hall of sorts. She'd been escorted from the hangar with a Titan on each side, and the Warlock taking point. As she'd passed by other Guardians and people who worked in the tower, they stared at her and whispered to one another. Obviously her presence her was not a surprise, but was something important. Why? What did she have that was of interest to the Guardians?

Finally, the hallway opened into a chamber that held an indented pit with a long table. Three people stood at the table, one on each of the far ends, and one on the left adjacent side. The closest one to her and her captors was a black woman with buzzed hair, who turned at the sound of their footsteps. The other two, an Awoken man in Titan armor and a hooded Exo followed suit and let their gazes fall upon Scorch.

"We finally found her. She was gambling and participating in a sparrow race near the outskirts." The woman's eyes widened slightly. "Gambling? I wouldn't have expected that, but good work Eager."

Scorch stood there, waiting to be addressed. There were a few moment's of silence before the Exo broke it, "Not a very talkative one, is she?"

She glared at him. "What reason do I have to talk? What do you people want from me?" Her tone was quite hostile, and was easily sensed by the Vanguards. The Awoken man attempted to calm her. "Young one, we mean you no harm. If you'll kindly listen, we can explain everything much faster."

Scorch gave a small sigh to settle herself and said slowly and clearly, "Fine. I'll listen." The man nodded, and began introductions; "My name is Zavala, commander of the Titans and city task force. This is Ikora Rey," he gestured to the woman closest to Scorch, "and this is Cayde-6, more commonly called Cayde." The Exo nodded, and waved. "How you doin'?

She nodded. "I know who you people are, you're the leaders of the Guardians. The Vanguards." Ikora nodded. "That is correct, young one." Scorch faced her. "None of you have ever cared about me before, why do you care about me now?"

Ikora opened her mouth to answer, but Cayde held his hand up to stop her. "Whoa, whoa. What do you mean, 'before'?"

The Vanguards stood waiting for an answer, and Scorch could only marvel at how seemingly ignorant they were of her, of her situation. She narrowed her eyes and spoke. "In the 'Battle for the Traveler', I lost my parents, my neighbors, my home. I lost everything that day, everything and everyone I ever cared about. The only reason I even lived was because of several Guardians who saved my life from a group of Fallen, though I still was left with this." She held her left hand, still trapped with the other in handcuffs, up to her respective cheek, and pointed at the long scar across her face.

Cayde slapped his face. "Of course, that's where she gets her namesake! I was wondering why it was such an odd name-" He silence himself at the glare of Ikora, who then turned back to Scorch and said softly, "Continue."

"I thought that working to protect the city as a Guardian had to be the greatest service that anyone could offer, but I was wrong. Despite my requests for help, nobody ever responded. I wrote, I tried many times to contact anyone, but I was left to the streets, to grow up on my own with nothing but my wit and thievery to keep me from starving." The Vanguards seemed taken aback. "Why, we never-"

"For _years_ , I endured the cold winters, sleeping outside without anyone to take care of me." She shrugged. "I figured that there had to be a better way to live, and so I joined sparrow-racing. The pay was little, though at least I was able to afford food, an actual apartment. As I got better and entered more races, the earnings grew until they became my steady source of income." She pointed with her locked hands at the Vanguards. "And not once in all the years I survived on the streets did I ever hear that help might come, that someone might come along to take care of me. And I'm not the only one who got screwed over, there are plenty of others like me who just had bad luck." She laughed loudly, but without mirth. "So, excuse me if I find it slightly ironic and funny that the people who never once tried to assist me are now asking me for help."

The Vanguards were silent, speechless at what she'd said. Not one person said a word until a voice from behind her said, "I'm so terribly sorry, Scorch. I truly am."

Everyone in the room looked to see a man in white robes and a masked face behind Scorch and her escort, the Speaker. He walked around her and down the steps to the Vanguard's table, speaking softly all the while. "But there are greater things at stake here, for the present moment. Greater than even we could have predicted."

Cayde nodded. "Yup, that about sums it up. By the way Speaker, the body's been built and is ready to go." The Speaker acknowledge him with a curt nod of the head saying, "Thank you, Cayde." He turned to Ikora. "Perhaps it is better for her to understand by simply hearing the message itself?" The Warlock Vanguard nodded, and faced Scorch. "We received a message, one of two components that was in a transmission originating from somewhere inside Venus. You might want to take a listen."

She held out a device to Scorch, presumably an audio device. Scorch hesitated, not wanting to unknowingly agree to something she didn't know about, but her sixth sense kicked in. She felt a strong urge- no, a _need_ to listen to that message. Reaching out her hands, she grabbed the device from Ikora, and brought it close to her. There was a screen on it, and she pressed the play button.

Staticky sound began to emit from the speakers, and it was hard to make out what the person was saying. "…lost are here, the lost… rescue… urgent mission… darker than any of us could…." The audio quality was terrible, punctuated by intermittent pauses and audio jumps that prevented them from making complete sense of the message. Scorch was only slightly intrigued at first before the message's next words played; "…Scorch, find Scorch and she… save…child of light, the Balance, it all makes sense…their last chance… wait… my God, it's opening! We're-" The message abruptly ended, and Scorch was left with more questions than answers.

"That's as audibly clear as we could make the quality when we unscrambled the transmission," said Zavala, shaking his head. "We are left in the dark to decipher its contents, but we have several guesses as to what this could mean." Scorch looked over at him. "You do? Because I don't. Whoever this is, they apparently know me. I don't understand what that 'child of light' and 'balance' stuff is, though. I'm not sure what help I could be to you."

The Speaker look up at her, and tilted his head. "You could be of the greatest help. While we may not know for certain, there are several clues that have piqued my curiosity each time I listen." He walked over to her, and held her in his gaze. "Firstly, you are asked for by name, so whether it is of convenience or not, you are tied in to this mystery. How vital to the mystery depends on what course of action you would like to take." She cocked her head to the side in surprise. "I have a choice?"

"Oh yes," he said nodding. "You could simply hear us out and we would tell you what our plan going forward with this is. Even then, you would still have a choice. Or, you could leave now, and return to your current life. I will do all in my power to ensure that you are properly compensated and given more appropriate living conditions, as well as the other individuals whom you spoke of. I assure you, it was not our intent to leave citizens trapped homeless and alone on the streets."

It sounded like a good deal, one that she would have ordinarily taken under any other circumstances; free money, a better home, and possibly a chance for her to quit sparrow-racing. No matter how much she enjoyed it, she knew that it wasn't a great long-term plan. The offer seemed almost too good to be true.

"Take it." Spectre materialized into existence in front of her, and shocked everyone. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that," came the voice of the Warlock Exo who she now knew was named Eager. "You- you have a Ghost?" questioned Ikora, at a loss for words. Spectre faced the Vanguard and vibrated slightly to show his resentment. "Yes, she does, thank you for your clever observation." His sarcastic stone caused the Vanguards to stare at him, slightly affronted at his blunt nature. He turned back to Scorch. "Look, you're not going to find a better deal again. This is your chance to start moving on up, get a fresh start like you've wanted!"

His words made sense to her, but there it was again. That feeling. She looked at him with a pleading look in his eye. He moved from side to side, anxiously. "No, don't say what I think you're going to say." She gave him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, you know I can't control it." Spectre groaned. "I really hate that sense of yours sometimes."

Eager leaned forward slightly. "I'm sorry, what sense is this again?" Scorch shook her head. "It's not important." But now everyone was waiting to hear an explanation, and she silently cursed Spectre for bringing it up. Drawing in a deep breath, she explained, "It's like… a feeling I get that tells me what to do, almost a sixth sense. I can just tell when I'm supposed to do something, what I'm supposed to do, and how to do it. I don't know how to explain it." The Speaker looked thoughtful. "There's no need, I already know. Now, it may be I who has to explain to you."

He began to pace, as though he were putting pieces of a puzzle together himself as he showed her how to connect everything. "There was a prophecy, centuries ago. Long before I had even come into this world, the Warlocks had attempted to decipher messages from the Traveler in its dormant state, seeking guidance in the dark times of the Collapse. What they found was a divination; one that foretold the coming of a child of light, someone who would initiate the Balance, an event that would bring order and equality to the scales of light and dark."

"What's a child of light?" asked Scorch. The Speaker looked at her, and shrugged. "As I said, you have two choices. I can't tell you anything more unless you promise to hear what we have to say in all of its completion." Scorch bit her lip, and thought to herself. Her feeling was still there, practically begging her to listen. Who was she to deny it now, when it hadn't failed her before? "Okay. Now what's a child of light?"

The Speaker made a small nod to her escorts, and Eager moved in front of her to reach down, and take off the magnetic cuffs. She rubbed her wrists, trying to move blood back into circulation as he retreated back to his spot behind her.

Walking down to the Vanguard table, the Speaker rested his hand upon the end of it. "Children of light are people whose souls have been directly created or touched by the Traveler itself. With constant exposure to the Traveler and its light, it is only natural that as with radiation fallout, some members of the population may become altered by its power. They are more in tune with the flow of light, more aware of fluctuations within the energy that flows around us." He pointed at her. "Your sixth sense, as you call it, is a symptom of that. Even now, it guides you to make the choices that will lead you towards your destiny."

She raised an eyebrow. "You mean it guides me, tells me how to succeed at stuff?" He shook his head. "No. Everyone has a fate which awaits them at the end of their life. How one ends up there is up to the individual. But your guidance will help show you the path which will lead you to your destiny in the most efficient ways; whether it's making a choice between two life-changing decisions, or simply telling you how to survive so that you can make it to the next day, it will always be there, whispering in your ear."

"In recorded history, there have been three other known children of light. The first died long ago, our only records consisting of how he seemed to wield the light more adeptly than anyone had ever seen before. The second of course, is me." She raised her eyebrows. "If you're a child of light, why haven't you tried to fulfill the prophecy?"

"Oh, I did long ago, when I was just as young- maybe younger than you are." He shook his head. "I was such a fool, allowing pride to rush to my head. I set out without even the faintest clue of what I was supposed to be doing. When I returned, I realized my true calling. I am the least powerful of the known children of light, and as such I am just a servant of the Traveler. I talk with it, commune with it. I know my place; I am not the one of the prophecy." He extended his hand palm up, gesturing to Scorch. "You, however…. your place is not yet known."

She held up her own hand, signaling him to stop for a moment. "Hold on. Who was the third child of light?" Immediately, silence filled the room. Her escort behind her muttered, "Jeez, touchy subject I'm assuming." Evidently, he nor the other two had any idea about any of this.

Ikora looked up gravely as Scorch. "The third child of light was one whose name has become legend, someone to be feared. I warn new Guardians each time that there are those that the light was never meant to touch. He is the reason for that." Scorch crossed her arms. "Who was it?"

Ikora whispered, "The Consumed." There was a gasp from the three Guardians surrounding her, and even Scorch knew the legend of the the Consumed. "I thought that was just a myth?" she asked, her voice suddenly small. Cayde shook his head.

"No, he's very real. Before we gave him that rather descriptive title, he was a Guardian known as Kaine. He was a child of light just like you, except that he decided to ignore his destiny. He believed that he shouldn't be chained to one path of fate, and that true power was being able to defy time and destiny itself." Cayde scoffed. "Turned into a damn lunatic, he did. Got much closer to the Darkness than even he could have predicted, and before he knew it, he was more corrupted than Dredgen Yor."

"He is an example of our failure," said Ikora, changing the subject. "You will not end up like him, should you proceed from this point." Scorch nodded, trusting the Warlock's sincerity for the moment. "Alright. Now what about the rest of the message? What does me being a child of light have to do with any of this?"

The Speaker raised a finger, as though she'd gotten an answer right. "Ah, now that's the question isn't it? You see, I can understand the individual parts of the message, but not how they fit together. It's as though I were solving a puzzle with only corner pieces. From what I can gather, you're supposed to go on a mission of some kind. Now as for what kind of mission, we believe we know the answer." Zavala took over, expanding on the Speaker's thoughts. "We lost a team of Guardians a little over five years ago, and to this day haven't the slightest clue what happened to them. They were however, the best of the best, so whatever it was that caused their disappearance is powerful indeed."

"Who were they?" asked Scorch. She'd hear rumors of a legendary team of Guardians go missing, but she'd never believed them to hold truth until now. Zavala gave her a sad sort of expression, one that suggested he had a bond with these Guardians not just as a mentor, but as a friend. "They were the saviors of the city, the only reason the Traveler is still around today. Their names were Matt, Ash, and Aria. In recent years, they were commonly referred to as 'the Heroes', an honorary title in recognition of their accomplishments."

Scorch recognized those names, and she tried to remember where she'd heard them before. Suddenly, the memory of her near-death experience at hands of the Fallen, the one that had given her the namesake, 'Scorch', surfaced. It had been them who saved her that day. She remembered the Hunter calling the Warlock Aria, and his Ghost referring to him as Matt. Ash had been mentioned by the Ghost at some point, and before she knew it she had been dropped off at the base of the tower. She still remembered Aria's parting words to her; _If you have to be something, be brave._

Scorch swallowed hard as Zavala continued. "One day, they embarked on a secret mission, one that not even we were told about. We noticed their disappearance after a week, but had figured that they were caught in the middle of some quest. A year later, after several search parties and expeditions, there was still no trace of them." He sighed deeply, then stood a little straighter. "But now, we may have a lead. We believe that the transmission came from them, no matter how unlikely it is that they're even alive at this point."

Scorch felt a bit confused. "Wait, what makes you think it's them?" Cayde held up two fingers on his hand. "Two reasons. One is the message. It refers to 'the lost' being there, wherever _there_ is, and something being 'their last chance'. With the word 'rescue' in there as well, I think it's safe to say that whoever it was needs help. Now, the only lost we know of are those Guardians, and if we interpret the message correctly, you apparently might very well be their last chance for survival. You can see why we might be a bit eager to get you." He leaned to the side a bit to wave at the task force Warlock. "No pun intended, Eager!"

He faced Scorch again, and his voice had returned to its serious state. "The second clue is data fragment that we've been very cautious about using. But at this point, we're kinda out of options, so we're giving it a chance." He grabbed a radio on his belt, and brought it up to his face. "Reed, bring in the body please." A moment later came an emotionless response that Scorch assumed was from a Frame saying, "Affirmative, Sir."

Cayde clipped the radio back on his belt and sighed. "Whatever happens, this is gonna be crazy. Either crazy good, or crazy bad. Maybe a bit of both."

A few seconds later, Scorch heard the sound of servos and motors whirring behind her. Spinning around, she saw a Frame transporting a hovering table of sorts, almost like a hospital bed. It maintained a height of about three and a half feet in the air, and on top of it was a metallic figure. Scorch moved in to get a closer look.

"Who is this?" she asked, referring to the body before her. It was a female Exo, its paint scheme consisting of white and silver, with the white covering most of the body. Cayde pointed to the body. "You mean that? Nobody, at least not yet. Although the body has been built to resemble, albeit with some modifications I recommended, the likeness of Ash, the Exo Titan on their team." Ikora looked at him and asked, "Modifications Cayde?" He looked at her blankly before his eyes widened and he protested loudly, "No, no! Nothing like that at all. I just meant that it's not going to be an identical twin of Ash. An extra plate here, a bit less sheeting there, you know. There might be a few features that differ between the two."

Ikora nodded, satisfied. "Alright then. Are we ready?" Scorch held up her hands. "Wait, I'm lost. Are we ready for what? What are we doing?" Cayde held up an electronic chip.

"You see this? It holds the data fragment we were sent, but it's not just any fragment. It's a person. Do you remember tales of the Warrior?" Scorch nodded. "Of course I do, I was told stories as a kid. Why?" He shrugged slightly, as if to take blame off himself should she find fault with what he had to say next. "Well you see, Ash used to be the Warrior before she lost her memory, and became a completely different personality. The Warrior actually gave up her body so that the persona of Ash could live on." He pointed at the chip. "And this thing?" Scorch nodded slowly.

"This is the second clue. The person in the data fragment is the soul of the Warrior."

* * *

 _Author's Note: I'm very happy to begin this new series for you to all enjoy! With life getting in the way, it may be a slightly slower upload process with this story, though the more reviews I read the more encouraged I become to hurry with each chapter. Please take the time to review each chapter when you read one, as even a little bit of feedback can go a long way towards me improving in my writing, or even simply being motivated to continue the story!_


	3. Destiny Awaits

"That's the Warrior's soul?!" Scorch now looked at the chip with apprehension. "What kind of shit have you all gotten yourselves into?"

Cayde held up his hand to calm her. "Perhaps I misspoke! When I say it's her soul, I mean mostly an echo of it. It's definitely her, but with… pieces missing. From what I've been able to analyze of it, the fragment has no memories, just a directive and basic knowledge of the situation." He shrugged. "How much of the situation it actually knows, we won't find out until we test it." He turned to the other Vanguards. "Are we ready to do this?"

They nodded, and with their approval behind him, he walked over to the body and raised its head off the floating stretcher by placing his fingers under its neck, and lifting. "I'm just gonna insert the chip for a few seconds, and pull it out. The consciousness of the fragment should move into the body naturally, and then we'll get some answers."

With the chip in between his forefinger and thumb, Cayde slipped the chip into a slot in the back of its head. He waited a few moments, and then removed it. "There, that should be all it needs. Let's see what-"

Before he could even finish his sentence, the sound of motors and servos coming to life was heard coming from the body. Blue lights began to wink on, lighting up parts of the arms and legs. The body began to move and stir slightly. After a moment, the eyes opened and were revealed to be a piercing blue color.

"There, you see?" The head moved to look at the source of Cayde's voice. "Told you it'd be-" Like a snake, an arm shot out and gripped the Hunter Vanguard by the throat. It sat up from the stretcher, and lifted him slightly above the ground.

"She's- got- a bit- of a kick- doesn't she-?" he choked out. Various individuals around the room began to raise their weapons, namely the task force guards and Ikora Rey charging up her void energy, but the Speaker lifted his hands and yelled, "No! Do not attack!"

For a moment it seemed as though the Speaker was crazy, but a moment later the body unexpectedly released Cayde, and he fell to the ground, immediately standing back up and retreating a few paces while rubbing his throat region. The now inhabited Exo raised her hands to her face, and looked at them for a few moments. Raising her gaze, it fell upon the Speaker.

"Scorch. I need to find Scorch." Surprisingly quickly, she hopped off the stretcher and approached him. "Where is she? It is of absolute importance!"

"I'm Scorch!" Scorch called out, hoping to draw her attention. She turned around to look at her, and Scorch felt as though she were being sized up by the Exo. She walked over to Scorch and began to speak frantically, "We don't have much time, there's so much to do! We need-" Scorch held up her hands to stop her. "Alright, alright. I get it, but you need to calm down a bit and explain. We're a bit in the dark as to what's going on, and your behavior is freaking us out a bit."

The Exo's movement was somewhat reminiscent of a child who had eaten too much sugar. She bounced up and down on her feet, and appeared to be quite anxious. Nonetheless, she attempted to control herself as Scorch had suggested, and the next time she spoke, it was quite calm; "I apologize, I did not realize."

Turning around, her eyes found Cayde standing near the Speaker, looking wary of her. "To you as well, I'm sorry. I did not know what to expect when I woke up, and just reacted as though I were in danger." The Hunter waved at her. "That's alright, I forgive you. We can keep talking, just, you know, with you over there." She nodded her understanding of the Hunter's reluctance, and faced the spectators around her.

"I am not the person you think I am, or at least not completely." She moved her eyes over each person, locking gazes with everyone one at a time. "I am the persona of the Warrior, but I am merely an echo. All I know is what the other persona allowed me to know." Zavala interrupted, "Other persona? You mean Ash?" The Exo nodded. "Yes. Until now, I was just a fragment of data in the back of her mind." Cayde clapped, and raised both his arms into the air. "Well then, that proves it! They have to be alive! Or, at least Ash anyway."

The Exo's features seemed as though it was feeling consternation, and struggling with its thoughts. "I am only aware of certain things, such as who you all are, though it is taking some effort to recognize you; it's as though I am pulling up a faint memory from long ago."

The Speaker tilted his head in thought. "Perhaps the transmission's corruption led to some corruption of your persona as well. What do you know? Can you tell us what happened to Ash and her fireteam?" The Exo looked down, an expression of concentration on her face. Shaking her head, she looked back up. "I'm sorry again, but I'm not quite sure. Perhaps, like you said, some of the info was lost. I can't remember many things that Ash has done at all. Everything feels hazy to me." She raised a finger on one hand. "There are, however, several things I do know."

She began to pace around the room, others making space for her as she walked near them. "Firstly, Ash and the others are in trouble. I was sent as help, to act as a guide for those who would search for them, and bring rescue." She shook her head at the questions she could see on the Vanguards' faces. "No, I don't know what trouble they're in, only that it is very Dark, and very powerful. Darker than anything even the original Warrior, my predacessor had ever seen."

She spun around, and began to walk in the other direction. "Secondly, I know that Scorch is supposed to be the one who leads the search." She looked at Scorch, and pointed at her. "You are a child of light, the one meant to bring about the Balance." Suddenly, she brought both of her hands up the sides of her head, and closed her eyes tightly, as though she was suffering a massive pain.

"The Balance… it has everything to do with Scorch, with them! If I could only remember…!" A moment later, she opened her eyes and practically shouted, "TIME! The Balance isn't just limited to the light and dark, it has something to do with the fabric of time itself!"

Now Cayde crossed his arms. "That seems a bit far fetched. I mean, time? You can't change time, it's already happened." The Exo shook her head at him. "No, time is written, but it is written with pencil, not ink. They… they discovered something, something that can re-write it, _rewrite time itself._ "

Zavala shook his head slowly. "For five years we've waited without answer, and now you present a very odd solution indeed. I'm not quite sure of how anything could possibly exist in the way you speak of."

The Exo glared at him. "Believe it or not, it is the truth. And I will not stay here as they die!" She looked at the Speaker. "This is my purpose of being, to help them. Would you all honestly risk a chance to save them over a slight disbelief of truth?" All were silent for a moment, and then Cayde surprised everyone by saying, "Hell no. You have a point, if there's even a slight chance to get them back, we're gonna take it. I said it when Ash and Aria galavanted off to save the Spark, I'm gonna say it now; _we don't leave Guardians behind._ "

Ikora sighed. "You're right." She faced the Exo. "We will do everything in our power to help you."

She shook her head. "Not me. _Her._ " She gestured to Scorch, and Scorch jerked her head, taken aback. "As I said, you are the one supposed to lead the search. I'm not sure why myself, but I know that much." Scorch rubbed her temple with her forefinger and thumb. "This is a lot to take in, I'll admit. And I'm not really sure how to deal with it."

Nobody said a word for a moment. Then Ikora softly said, "There is one way you could start." Scorch glanced over at her. "And what would that be?"

"Become a Guardian," she finished, "and fulfill your destiny as a child of light; as the bringer of the Balance."

Scorch didn't know how to react. Before her life on the streets, she'd only wanted to be a Guardian- to be one of the people who would save others as she'd been saved. But now, with her terrible experiences concerning the last few years still a reality of her life, she wasn't sure she wanted to be one.

She thought back to what Aria had said, and how she'd based her survival and everything she did on that one saying; be brave. Right now, she needed to be brave. With very slow movement, she closed her eyes, and nodded.

"Even after all you've been through?" came Spectre's voice, and she opened her eyes to see him looking at her like he was seeing her for the first time. "You don't owe them anything!" She pursed her lips. "Actually, I do. The missing Guardians are the ones that saved me seven years ago, during the Battle for the Traveler. I'm in their debt, and you know me. I don't leave debts unpaid." The Ghost vibrated slightly, then hovered over to her shoulder. "Well, then I guess that's it. I know how stubborn you can be, there's no arguing with you here."

Zavala piped up, "I'm proud of your choice, Scorch. Not many others in your same situation would have done the same." She shrugged. "Normally, I wouldn't have either. But this isn't a normal situation." The Titan accepted this, and did not comment. Instead, he moved on with, "All we need to do is perform a test, something to determine what class of Guardian you belong to." Scorch nodded, and waited for the next instructions.

"Empty your mind, Scorch. Allow yourself to picture a source of energy, an aura of power. Think of what it looks like, how it feels, how it acts." Scorch did what she was told to do, and tried to think of something. With her eyes closed, there wasn't anything she could see but blackness. It was quite calming and -

A spark of light. Something appeared in her vision, dim at first, but growing brighter. Brighter…

"I see… purple. Purple streaks of light that dance around, surrounding my body. It looks like-" " A vortex?" interrupted Ikora. "A Shield?" added Zavala, hopefully.

"No," she responded. "It looks like a bow, like a bow of purple light." She opened her eyes with a gasp to see Ikora and Zavala staring at her with raised eyebrows. Slowly, they both turned to Cayde, who seemed just as shocked as they were. "You saw… what now?"

"A bow," she repeated. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Seven years ago, after Ash and Aria had come back from their mission to save the Spark, they told us how they had unlocked new- or rather old, very old- abilities. What you're talking about is a Nightstalker. We asked them to show the other Guardians, and hopefully have some new strength amongst the masses, but only a very small amount of people ever mastered them. Not once have we ever had a natural Nightstalker since I've been a Vanguard." He gestured to her. "But now, you've come along. Welcome to the ranks, Hunter."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card of some kind. "This here is my "I-owe-you" card. Give it to the Cryptarch, and he'll set you up with some proper gear." Spectre flew forward, and dematerialized it. "I'll take that." Cayde raised his arms halfway in the air, and made a face as though he were saying, _What the hell?_

"Anyway," he said, trying to forget about the Ghost's odd behavior, "that should about cover what you'll need. After all, you've already got a Ghost apparently." He pointed at Spectre with a look of dislike, and continued, "If you'd like, we can provide living quarters here-" "No thanks," Scorch interrupted, "I'll be fine at my apartment." Cayde shrugged. "Alright, suit yourself. Now, about you." He looked over at the Exo who had been listening to the exchange silently. "From what I can gather, you're not the Warrior, not truly anyway. And you're definitely not Ash, but you kind of need a name other than, 'the Exo'. Any ideas?"

She pondered this for a moment. "It is true, I'm not the Warrior or Ash. I am something new, something…" She said softly, "Something unencountered before."

In an instant, she brought her head up. "I am the dawn of something new, so that is what I will be called; Dawn." Cayde nodded approvingly. "That's a good name. I thought we might be here for a while, I was told it took Ash quite a while to think of her name."

Dawn looked at Scorch, and made a fist in a sign of loyalty. "I will be your guide when you need me Scorch, but you are the one meant to find them. I know that you'll do well." Scorch nodded in appreciation, but realized something. She brought up a point to Cayde; "Wait, aren't fireteams supposed to have at least three members?"

He nodded. "You're right. But, I'm not sure who-" Scorch quickly turned and pointed at the task force Warlock. "Him." "Me?" He asked, stunned. She nodded reproachfully. "You owe me after shooting my sparrow, so this is the least you can do." Eager looked like he was about to argue, but decided against it. "Alright. I'm sure that this will be a lot of… fun." He said fun with a bit of stress on the word, insinuating quite obviously that 'fun' was not the real word he had in mind.

Cayde clapped his hands. "Well, that's decided then. The task force will take you home, and we'll meet back here in the morning. It's been a long day."

-X-

Scorch walked up the steps to her building's door with Dawn, who had insisted that she accompany Scorch. She was fine with it, but it was definitely going to be odd to have a companion that followed you everywhere. Dawn didn't really have anywhere else to go though, so Scorch hadn't argued.

Walking to the end of the hallway to which the doorway led into, she began to ascend the stairs to the second level, Dawn's footsteps following close behind. Once on the second floor, she walked down three doors until she reached the third room on the left, and reached into her jeans. The one item she was always able to keep track of was her room-key since it never left her pocket. Opening the door, she walked in and flopped down on the couch. Dawn looked at her.

"What is our first move?" Scorch glanced upward with a raised eyebrow. "Our first move? I don't know about you, but I'm gonna sleep. Earlier today, I was an illegal sparrow-racer. Now, I'm a Guardian who's supposed to be some kind of legend, a child of light meant to bring about the Balance, an event which somehow ties into three missing Guardians' disappearance, the same Guardians who saved my life nearly seven years ago." She sighed in exasperation. "Like Cayde said, it's been a long day. I'm catching some shut eye."

She gestured at another couch several feet away. "If you need to sleep, you can use the other couch or the bed in my room. I'm not getting up from here until I've had some rest, so feel free to choose either."

Dawn glanced over at the couch, and decided that it would suffice. She looked back to thank Scorch, but the newly-made Guardian was already sleeping. Shuffling over to the couch, Dawn laid down upon it, and thought back on the day so far. She still could not quite remember several details of her mission, but she was sure that she and Scorch would find out together. She wished she could tell Scorch what the girl was meant for, what she was meant to do, but the information eluded even her own probing mind. Closing her eyes, she resigned herself to the fact that she wasn't going to remember very soon, and let herself drift off to sleep.


	4. Seeker's Inheritance

Scorch yawned as she and Dawn entered the Hall of Guardians. In her hand was a cup of coffee she'd picked up from a store near her apartment. Cayde turned at the sound of her footsteps approaching, and welcomed her. "Hey, great to see you! There's a lot we need to go over, so I'm glad you came somewhat early."

She glanced around the otherwise empty room. "Where are the others?" He gestured at where Zavala and Ikora usually stood. "You mean them? They're out doing something, I think investigating some kind of landing accident in the hangar. Doesn't matter. I'm here because we need to go over a game plan here."

She walked over, taking a sip from her cup as she did so. Dawn stood nearby, looking around the room curiously, waiting to be addressed should the need arise. Cayde pointed at the coffee cup in Scorch's hand. "Can I see that for a second?" She handed it over to him with a quizzical look on her face. The Hunter held the cup up to his mouth, and began to sip from it. A moment later, he handed the cup back to Scorch who stood silent in disbelief. "Thanks for that, that's the good stuff. Coffee around the tower just never seems to taste as good."

With that out of the way, Cayde looked back at the table and brought out a map of some landscape that Scorch was unfamiliar with. "I've talked with Amanda Holliday, the Shipwright here. Due to the nature of the mission, she's more than happy to lend you and your…" He searched for a proper word. " _…companions,_ ships. One for each of you, and they're pretty fast. She's also providing a good stock of sparrows for your use since you'll be covering a lot of ground." Scorch faced him with an eyebrow raised. "We will?"

Cayde nodded. He jabbed his finger at the map lying on the table. "This is a chart of the Ishtar Region. The transmission came from somewhere within the mantle of Venus, underground. But we managed to triangulate its position to somewhere in this vicinity. Your job," he said pointing at her, "is to get down there, and start investigating. Whatever they were doing, the Heroes were definitely involved with something dangerous. Find some clues, narrow down possibilities, and see where this takes you."

Scorch just stared at him. "That's almost nothing to go on! How do you expect me to track down a group of people without knowing anything?" He shrugged. "That's why we've had such difficulties in the past, there's no info to go on. All of our trails ended up running cold. The only thing we ever managed to find was a large collection of Vex bodies that were apparently killed by them at some point before they disappeared." Scorch gestured at the map. "And where was that?" "Right…" Cayde indicated a spot on the map labeled 'Waking Ruins', "here. If you find something else there, hats off to you, but we combed through that area many times before. We couldn't pick up any sign of the Heroes' presence."

Scorch sighed. "Alright, thanks." Cayde looked over to the side and called, "Dawn! Could you come over here please?" She walked over, questioning. "What do you need?"

He leaned against his arm on the table, giving off an air of being somewhat impatient. "Is there anything you can tell us that might point in a certain direction for you guys to take? Anything at all?" Dawn looked over at the map. "What is this area here?" She indicated a spot that appeared to lay inland of the coast. "That? That's where the Ishtar Academy used to be. Some of the greatest minds of the Golden Age worked there." Dawn began to nod vigorously. "I'm not sure what, but something about that place is involved."

Cayde clapped his hands in an official sort of way. "Good enough for me. Scorch, you'd better go pick up your gear from Master Rahool. He's a nice guy, but can be a bit… vague. If for some reason, you find yourself with something you didn't ask for, call him out on it."

With that odd bit of advice, Cayde looked back to the maps, and began to mark areas of interest. With nothing else to do, Scorch walked out of the chamber, Dawn acting as her shadow.

-X-

"No, no. That rune means 'sun', so then this one has to either be a synonym or a relative term. 'Star', perhaps?" The Cryptarch mumbled to himself as he struggled to understand what a certain set of scrolls meant, and how they should be deciphered. He was often given puzzles and tasks from the Guardians that had grown fond of him, and he enjoyed challenges that could potentially help the war effort.

"Hello?" Turning around, the Cryptarch found himself looking at a young woman who stood outside his stand in the tower plaza. He looked her over, noticing that instead of a Guardian's armor, she wore slightly worn out jeans with a hooded jacket, and fingerless gloves. Probably someone who didn't really care about what others thought of her appearance. He straightened up, and greeted her. "Good morning. How may I be of assistance?"

Scorch held out the card that Cayde had given her yesterday. "This is from Cayde-6. He says I need some gear for a mission I'm taking on." The Cryptarch looked at the card, and sighed. "I'm not really fond of these exchanges, but they usually are necessary ones for dire circumstances. I'm more than willing to help the Vanguard when I am called upon. What class?"

She looked blank for a second, then her face lit up with enlightenment of his question. "Oh, I'm a Hunter." Turning around, he looked through a storage container and brought out an odd looking object, a dodecahedron. It was purple in color, and glowed softly. She raised an eyebrow and looked at the Cryptarch.

"What is this?" He cocked his head. "It's an engram. Do you not know about engrams?" She shook her head, and he sighed. "Ah well, I suppose living in the city can't expose you to everything. Well, it's quite simple to explain. Engrams are a fourth state of matter, one that items and objects, no matter the mass, can be converted into given the right hand in Cryptarchy." Placing his fingers upon the purple dodecahedron, he began to move them slightly, running his hands along several edges, and generally being very careful.

Suddenly, it flashed and began to take a shape. Resting in the palm of his hand was now a helmet, a very fine looking one at that. Scorch's eyes widened at the spectacle in front of her. "Well that's… new."

"Not really," said a voice from behind her. She and Dawn turned around to see Eager slowly walking the last few steps until he stood next to them. "What are you doing here? I figured you'd be out doing, you know, task force stuff." He shook his head. "Now that I'm apart of your team thanks to your extremely rash and quick decision, I was immediately reassigned to helping you. I was just looking through informational archives we have on Venus. Figured that we might as well be prepared." He nodded his head towards the helmet resting in the Cryptarch's hand. "The whole cryptarchy stuff is pretty common, by the way. Damn useful though. We find anything that we need info about or need to decode, he's our guy."

The Cryptarch nodded. "That's right, I will be your guide when it comes to comprehending the hidden secrets that engrams and encoded documents hold. Here's the helmet." Scorch grabbed the helmet from his outstretched hand, and analyzed it. "That model is Sanction Six, one of the finer looking helmets if I do say so myself. And here-" He reached behind him and brought forward the small box of engrams that he'd been looking through earlier, "-is the rest of the set. Just allow me to decode them for you."

Roughly five minutes and a large amount of decrypting later, Scorch was the proud owner of a set of gold and white colored amor. "Its color scheme is 'bloodpact', but you can change it later if you wish." Scorch raised her eyebrow, a common expression for her these days. "Change it later?" The Cryptarch nodded. "Just speak to the Guardian outfitter, and she can repaint your armor from a selection of color schemes."

Scorch shook her head, and faced Eager. "Seven years ago, we were on the brink of extinction. But now that we're in a comfortable position, Guardians apparently care about fashion more than fighting. Do you understand now why I had very little respect for you all?" She walked away as the Warlock searched in his mind for something to say in retaliation, but could not as he was completely flabbergasted at her odd question.

"Anyway," he began, attempting to change the subject, "You should probably go talk to Cayde. I was just there, and he told me he forgot to give you something." Scorch retreating back sighed in exasperation. Dawn shrugged. "It might be important. Go ahead and see what he wants, I'm going to grab my own gear." Eager looked at her. "And how do you know what class you are?" She glared at him with a condescending expression, and responded with a sarcastic tone, "Maybe because I'm pretty much a copy of another person? I'm probably going to have some similarities. Titan appears to run in the soul."

Eager looked slightly sheepish, and turned away. Scorch left them both to discuss whatever, and began to make her way towards somewhere she could change.

-X-

The Hunter Vanguard glanced upward after he detected the shadow approaching him. His gaze found Scorch looking at him expectantly. "Ah, I see you got your armor. How's it feeling?" She looked over herself, having taken the time to get fully geared up. "Well, it's more comfortable than I expected it to be. It's fine." Cayde nodded. "That's good, usually there's not much room for any consideration other than efficiency on the battlefield. Come over here, I wanted to talk to you about something." He motioned for her to follow him, and he walked over to the wall next to the opening of the Hall.

Built into the wall was a glass case of sorts. Inside was a shelf that held three glass pedestals, each of them in turn holding a different weapon. To the right of the window was a large blue computer screen, one that Cayde began typing something into. Scorch looked at the guns more carefully and noticed several details about them. All three were hand cannons, and each had their own unique characteristics. The one on the right was black in color, dark and wicked looking. It had sharp ridges running along its sides and top. She felt uneasy looking at it, as though it were a poisonous object to gaze upon.

The one on the left was of a more intricate craft. Most of the gun was a dark grey color, but the slide and most of the top was a brilliant timberwolf-white color. Engraved at the front end was a feather design pattern, giving character to the gun. Two sights were made to curve upward in a wing-like fashion, and there was a wicked hook on the butt of the handle. It looked like a beautiful weapon, and even Scorch had to appreciate the artistry involved with creating such a firearm.

The last was positioned in the middle. The bottom of the barrel was black, but the top of the slide was gold. The handle itself was a glossy brown and almost appeared to be made of wood, though Scorch suspected this was just an aesthetic characteristic. It looked similar to some of the Golden Age relics that people had managed to find every couple of years or so, almost as though the gun were made to give off a classic feel. It definitely looked powerful, that was for sure.

"As you might have guessed, these guns are kinda important. Y'know, the glass case and all." With an audible beep, the screen accepted whatever Cayde had typed in, and the pane of glass began to slide into the side, revealing the guns up close. He pointed at the sharp looking on first.

"That there, is the Thorn. It was the Messenger's weapon that he used against us, though it's not the first time we've encountered it. It was the same weapon that Dredgen Yor created from his original gun, the Rose. But after he became corrupted and began taking influence from the Hive's darkest powers, he twisted the Rose as well, and it became the Thorn. He murdered several Guardians with it until he was taken out by Shin Malphur using the Last Word. We'll get to that in a second. Anyway, I suppose that the Messenger managed to find it somewhere after Malphur hid it. Shin had said that nobody should ever become capable of wielding it again, but obviously whatever hiding place he picked wasn't good enough."

This time, Cayde reached in and pulled out the feather-design hand cannon. "Now this one here is something special. See, Matt, one of the Heroes, was a Hunter. And he had a reliable hand cannon, yeah, but he thought that perhaps he needed a weapon that more suited himself. So he begins forging this baby here, and though it took him forever, he actually managed to make a working prototype which turned into this, the Hawkmoon." He sighed contentedly. "Never has he made me prouder than when he showed this work of art off to me. A true Hunter's weapon."

He put the Hawkmoon in a holster at his side, and reached in to take out the final gun, the golden one. "Finally, we've got the Last Word. You heard me talk about Shin Malphur killing Dredgen Yor with it. Jaren Ward was the original owner, however. You see, he was a ruthless though very noble Guardian. This was his gun, his constant companion. He used to be friends with the man that Dredgen Yor used to be, and even tried to save Yor once the latter had become corrupted. But, things didn't pan out so well, and they parted ways as enemies. A few years later, he adopted Shin Malphur. Shin was an orphan living in the settlement of Palamon, and Ward became fond of him. Shin accompanied him for the rest of his travels until things went south."

Cayde shook his head sadly. "It's not truly known, but it's the most likely possibility that while Ward was away from one of their camps searching in the woods for something, Yor came back and killed him. All Malphur found was his gun, the Last Word. Swearing vengeance upon Jaren's killer, he ended up hunting down Yor and taking him out. He came to us, told us of Ward's story, and gave us the Last Word." He patted the hand cannon in admiration. "He said that it was too painful of a reminder for him, but someone worthier may come along and have need of it."

Scorch looked up from the gun into Cayde's face, and was startled to find that he was now staring directly at her. "That's where my need to talk to you comes into play. Firstly, I need a favor. Matt left the Hawkmoon in Banshee-44's care, he's the gunsmith here. The gun had become jammed with some kind of mechanical issue, and he didn't have time to fix it before he left on their mission. He said he'd grab it when he got back, but obviously that hasn't been the case. So it's sat here for five long years, collecting dust and reminding us all of the loss we suffered."

He pulled the Hawkmoon back out of the holster, and handed it to her. "If you don't mind, I'd love for you to return it to him when you find him. Call me a romantic, but I think it's been missing its owner for far too long." She looked it over, and nodded her agreement. Who was she to deny this to Cayde? It wouldn't hurt her in the slightest. "Spectre?" The Ghost appeared, and dematerialized the Hawkmoon, storing it for later. Cayde shook his head. "Still don't get your Ghost, but whatever. This is the second bit."

Now, he held the Last Word gingerly towards her, and Scorch ran her eyes over it hesitantly. "Malphur left this in our care for the next Guardian who was worthy of it. I think that's you. If you really are the child of light that's gonna bring about the Balance, it can't hurt to be well armed. Treat it with care." Scorch extended her hand towards it, and paused for a moment. Was she ready for this? Was she ready to follow her fate as the child of light?

Her guiding feeling came back to her, telling her that, _yes, she was ready. It was time for her to find her place in the world, and accept who she was._ Reaching forward the rest of the way, she gripped the Last Word by the handle, and lifted it upwards. It was well balanced, and felt light in her hands. Something about it in her possession seemed… right, somehow.

"Hey, where's your cloak?" Cayde looked around her in an attempt to find the fabric that should have been adorning her back and head. "My cloak?" "All Hunters wear cloaks, it's one of our trademarks. Almost a pride thing." She frowned. "That seems as though that'd be awfully inefficient in battle. You'd get tangled up all the time, and it'd blow around in whatever wind you came across." Cayde raised a finger. "Yes, but then you'd look freaking badass as it did." She just looked at him in disbelief. He waved his hand in dismissal.

"Well then, cloak-less Hunter, I think that about sums it up." Cayde gestured at the door. "Amanda will be waiting in the hangar with your ships, and your sparrows are all stowed away. I wish I could come with, but I've got other duties here. So, instead I wish you happy hunting." He saluted her, and walked back to the table. For the second time that day, Scorch left the Hall of Guardians, but this time she left it feeling confident, feeling as though she were finally coming to terms with this new life she'd been given.

She walked up the steps that led into the tower plaza, and spied Dawn, now fully dressed in her gear, conversing with Eager in the center. Dawn stopped talking as she spotted Scorch, and waved for her to join them. Complying, she walked over and greeted them. "What's up?"

Eager shrugged. "Nothing much, just discussing some of the info I picked up from the Archives. How about you? What did Cayde want?" She reached into the holster at her side, and pulled out the Last Word. If the Exo's eyes could possibly widen, they sure as hell were doing that. "Wait, he- he gave you the Last Word!? That's quite the honor, I have to say." He stopped, and said in a more serious tone, "I hope you know that, and uphold that honor." Scorch nodded, out of witty things to say. It was true, this wasn't something she could go off and flaunt around, it was a hero's weapon, and she planned on keeping it that way.

"What's the plan Scorch?" Dawn looked curiously at her, waiting for a response. Scorch thought for a moment. "Well, I'm gonna be blatantly honest, I've never been on Venus. I would recommend that we head there and scout out a bit before anything else. Get a lay of the land, you know what I mean." Dawn nodded. "That sounds logical. Lead the way." Scorch remembered what Cayde had said about their ships, and she knew where they were heading next.

-X-

Amanda Holliday retracted her hand from the Frame she was performing maintenance on. It came away greasy, but she had the corroded copper wire that needed replacing. Smiling to herself at the success, she set it down on the workbench next to her, and grabbed the wire she'd set aside as a substitute. Before she could begin work on the next phase however, she heard the sound of boots walking up the stairs to her workshop. She spun around to face her guests, and began hastily wiping black grease onto the metal-working apron she wore.

It was a young woman, a Hunter by the looks of the armor, followed by two Exo companions. One was a Warlock, and the other wore the signature armor of a Titan. She looked very familiar, though she couldn't place her finger on it-

Amanda gasped. "A- Ash? How- how are you here?" The Exo held up her hand to calm Amanda. "No, I'm not Ash. I'm just a part of the mission to go rescue her, as well as the other two."

The Shipwright looked over all three of them. "That's the secret mission you three are supposed to be taking on? Tracking down the Heroes?" The woman in front nodded. "That's right. I'm Scorch, a child of light that was prophesied to bring about the cataclysmic event known as the Balance, and it's my destiny to find the missing Heroes, along with these two." She nodded at the Exo. "That's Dawn, pretty much a copy of Ash and the Warrior's persona that has been sent by them through some unknown method to guide us to them. And this is Eager, the guy who shot my sparrow."

The Warlock glared at the woman for a second, and then smiled as he turned to Amanda. "How do you do?"

The mechanic sat down on her desk. "This is a lot to take in, you understand. I'll probably need a minute here." She just sat there for a few seconds before looking back up at Scorch. "They're alive? Ash, Matt, Aria, they're all alive?" Scorch paused, and then nodded slowly. "We believe so, though nothing is confirmed." Amanda pointed her thumb at the hangar bay below them. "Your ships are ready to go, feel free to leave whenever. I'm just gonna ponder this for a while." Scorch nodded in gratitude, then turned back around and descended the steps, leaving the Shipwright to contemplate the information she'd been told.

Walking onto the hangar floor, Scorch saw the three ships that Amanda had pointed out near the large opening of the hangar itself. They appeared to be smaller than the multi-person ships, but also sleeker and probably faster. "Those are good ships alright, Cayde wasn't kidding." Eager commented on the ships statuses, and accompanied his remark with a whistle. "Whose is which though?"

Dawn shook her head. "I don't think it matters. I'll take the one on the right." She set off at a brisk pace for the rightmost ship, and a second later came Eager's reply, "Alright then, guess I'm on the left. That leaves the middle for you, fearless leader." He too took off toward his respective ship, and Scorch began to walk slowly in the direction of the last remaining vessel. Spectre appeared, and Scorch talked as she moved. "I can't fly a ship, I've never had any experience." He sized up the ship himself. "Well luckily from the records I've looked at, Ash was a great pilot which means that Dawn will more than likely show that same trait. Eager's on the task force, he's trained for it. And you've got me. Believe it or not, I'm still a Ghost, and I still have knowledge about these things."

She nodded, and increased her speed due to the slight boost in confidence. "You'll see, it'll be just as easy as driving a sparrow. I'll teach you on the way." The front cockpit was open, and a ladder stood against the side, leading into the seat. A Frame stood next to it, waiting for her arrival. "Welcome, please enter." She complied, and began to ascend the ladder. Once she'd clambered inside, the ladder was taken away by the Frame, and the cockpit's plexiglass window began to slide over her. She sat in the black pilot's seat, one that was very comfortable and allowed her easy access to the console of buttons, levers, and switches. Spectre dematerialized into the ship, and a moment later his voice came over the comms. "Ready when you are."

She noticed a radio, and spoke into it with its settings on "broadcast" rather than an actual channel. "Are we good to go you two?" A holographic display appeared in front of her on the viewport courtesy of Spectre, and it showed the statuses of Dawn and Eager. Dawn spoke over the comms, "All clear and ready." A dot next to her name on the display winked green. "On your mark." Eager's light winked green.

Scorch exhaled deeply, trying to ignore the feeling of butterflies in her stomach. "Alright then… Fireteam-" She stopped. "What's wrong?" asked Spectre. Scorch frowned. "We don't have a name, a fireteam name." "Is that really high on your priority list right now?" She pointed at the display, analogously pointing to Spectre. "You know just as well as I do that one of the most important things in racing is a proper name. That's why 'Scorch' works so well." The Ghost sighed. "Fine. Hurry up though, I can't imagine that the Heroes are going to be in need of any more delays."

She furrowed her brow for a moment, then her face lit up. She spoke into the comms again, " _Fireteam Seeker_ , let's go." The ship began to rise quickly, Spectre at the controls. Dawn and Eager's each began to rise as well, and in another few seconds, they all blasted out of the hangar, and arced upward into the sky.

-X-

"Alright, so you understand the pitch and roll now?" Scorch nodded, though it felt slightly awkward with her helmet now on. "It's just a bit difficult without any sense of orientation in space." "Well, it seems like you're learning quickly enough. Just apply that knowledge to practical use, and you'll be solid." The comms suddenly crackled to life, and Eager's voice came over the channel. "Alright, I have to ask a question. How the hell do you have a Ghost, and such an anti-Vanguard Ghost too?" Scorch chuckled lightly. "You alright if I tell this story, Spectre?" "Doesn't matter to me."

She replied back into the comms; "While I was still living on the streets, I ran into Spectre as he was returning to the tower. Ghosts without a Guardian are, as you know, placed on supply duty. They collect materials wherever they can, usually on the borders of the city. He was coming back from such a supply run when he came across me shivering in the cold, living in a cardboard box. He asked me why I was out there, and I told him. At first, he wanted to take me to the tower, but I explained how I'd already been turned away more than once, and he became infuriated. Outraged at the way that the Vanguard were treating victims of the battle, he decided to stick with me and become my protector." She smiled. "He's been a pretty damn good one too."

Silence followed on Eager's end, until he finally spoke seriously, "I'm sorry, Scorch. I- I really am. I don't think anyone intended that, but it doesn't excuse what happened." Scorch thought this over, and though she was still a bit apprehensive about the shaky relationship with the Vanguard, she was willing to accept his reconciliation. "Don't worry about it Eager, you didn't have anything to do with it. No point in crying over spilt milk." Silence followed, and she figured he was likely mulling over her dismissal of his apology.

"Just letting you all know, we're approaching Venus in thirty seconds. Prepare for landing." Scorch sat back in her seat, and allowed Spectre to pilot the rest of the way. The blue effects of Warp space began to dissipate, and the black of normal space began to appear instead. Venus seemed to jump into her field of view, greenish-yellow and different in size than she'd pictured it, slightly smaller than Earth.

"Beginning our entrance into Venus' atmosphere…" Spectre's voice sounded as though he were concentrating, and Scorch watched silently in an attempt to avoid disrupting him. As they penetrated through layers of the atmosphere, red heat began to surround the ship. The heat shield sheltered them from the effects of quick entry through the air and gaseous layers that enveloped the planet. Soon enough, the heat disappeared, and they made it to cloud height. Half a minute later, they'd passed even that, and the planet itself came into view. The landscape was luscious and green, full of life like a jungle. Several identifiable human structures could be seen in various parts of the region, and there was a coastline that led into a red-colored expanse of water, probably an ocean created from terraforming.

Spectre began to fly towards a spot in a rocky terrain, one that had a clear path that would be traversable by either sparrow or foot. The ship slowed to a halt, and lowered itself until it was about twenty feet above the ground. "Get ready for a transmat." Scorch barely had any time to register Spectre's words before blue light surrounded her and the next thing she knew, she was falling flat on her ass in the dirt. Eager and Dawn appeared as well, and casually landed upright on the gravelly ground. Dawn walked over, and extended a hand to Scorch. She took it, and allowed the Titan to help her up.

"So," asked Eager, "where to first?" She looked around at the surrounding landscape, and pointed towards a cluster of buildings not too far away. "Is that the Ishtar region?" Spectre twisted around to her. "Technically, we're already in the Ishtar region, but that is where most of the Ishtar population lived, yes. It includes the Ishtar Academy and a few research outposts every few miles or so." Scorch gave a single nod, and began issuing orders. "Then that's where we'll start. The Heroes saved my life once, and it's about time I return the favor. Let's go."


	5. Secrets of the Archive

Their sparrows streaked across the rocky terrain as they made their way towards the abandoned city. Trails of bluish flame followed behind them, marking them as three anomalous individuals amidst the jungle-and-rock landscape. Within a minute or so, they had reached the first buildings. Vines, leaves, and other plant-life almost completely enveloped the area, making it appear to be some kind of botany experiment gone wrong.

With the whining sound of the sparrows' engines slowing to a halt, they came to a resting point near the building cluster's boundary. Several cars that were crushed and rusted over many years were clogging the streets, making it nearly impossible to successfully navigate the road with sparrows in any efficient manner.

Scorch stepped off of her vehicle, Dawn and Eager following suit. She looked around at the surrounding buildings and noticed an old paved path that led a bit to the right. She motioned for them to follow her, and set off along the newfound road to see where it led.

After stepping around several cars and large blocks of debris that were scattered around, Scorch came to an open area. Ahead was a slight incline that had been caused by a rupture in the ground. She jogged over to the crack, and was surprised to find that there was a broken down building to the left; one that, after climbing a few steps to reach it, appeared to have a massive hole in its side with the floor collapsing to the sub level below.

"Spectre? According to our maps, where does that lead?" The Ghost paused for a moment before saying, "To the Ishtar Academy. From several old scouts' reports, this cave-in is the only current possible way to reach it."

Eager and Dawn came up behind her as she gestured towards the ominous entrance. "Then that's where we need to go. Dawn said earlier that this place is important somehow, we're gonna find out in what way." She made her way across the pavement, her companions trailing slightly behind and next to her on either side.

The hole in the building wasn't the only collapsed piece of architecture. Moving deeper in, they found that the ground had completely sunk in years before, and led down to a waterlogged passage filled with the blue glow of some form of plant. With careful footing, they walked down the path and into the water.

Support columns were sticking up from the water and connecting to what would have been the floor above them. This suggested that they were within the foundation that the building was set upon. As they trekked through the water, their boots making _schloop_ sounds as they were pulled out of mud each time they took a step, Spectre provided some insight into the history behind the place.

"I remember people talking about this place. Apparently, some of the greatest minds in the solar system would travel to Venus just to contribute to the Ishtar Academy's knowledge. They did everything from study Vex minds to developing weapons based on Vex technology. As you can probably tell, a lot of the stuff was about Vex. Probably because of the unbearable abundance of them here."

He continued to search through information as they waded through the muck. "There have been almost no Guardians here since the Heroes' first journey to Venus." 'The Heroes came to Venus before their disappearance?" asked Scorch incredulously. This time, Eager answered her; "Yeah, actually. It was where they first met the Stranger, the one who used to be called the Assassin. She sent them on a journey to kill the Black Garden and save the Traveler, a journey which they thankfully succeeded in. The Battle for the Traveler was only a single component in the quest."

Scorch drank in all this information with genuine curiosity taking control over her mind. She never knew too much about her saviors, only that they were some of the most revered Guardians known to the city. It was interesting, to say the least, for her to discover this much more about them. "What happened then?"

"Well, they told the Vanguard that after journeying to the Awoken, they were given a key to the Black Garden and destroyed it. It no longer exists as a part of reality thanks to them, and the Traveler has been healing for several years now." Eager stepped over a particularly deep hole in the ground. "It may not be back up to full strength yet, but it's been communicating more frequently with the Speaker in recent times, and has been more than capable of replenishing its light now."

They finally came around a bend, and reached an end to the passage. Here, concrete rubble formed a path that led upwards into an open-spaced area of sorts. In the center of the room stood a statue, likely the Goddess Venus. The sides of the room were two stories tall, and held bookshelves on each. For Scorch, that was a lot of reading, but if there were supposed to be geniuses that lived here, perhaps it was a bit more understandable.

Something caught her eye. Littered around the ground were the eroding remains of Vex. They were a number of years old, as rust and plant growth had slowly begun to cover them. But they couldn't be older than a few years as they were still in the relatively early stages. When sparrow parts got old, they could still be salvaged assuming that they hadn't been wasting away for too long. This level of decay was about even with her several junkyard experiences.

"If the Heroes were the only people to come to Venus in a long time, then these bodies must have been left by them." Spectre flew a few feet in front of her. "Unfortunately, the Vanguard are a little bit ahead of you there. This is one of the places they searched, and they already found the bodies. They even found some footprints which should be a little ways over toward the back of the room. It was chalked up to when they first came here and fought the Vex for the first time." Scorch looked around, and sure enough found the sets of footprints that had lain undisturbed in the dusty floor for years.

"Well, maybe this line of thinking is a bust then. Not sure why you thought this place was so important," said Eager, motioning at Dawn, "but I'm not seeing anything that corresponds with that." Dawn looked around, her voice sounding disappointed as well. "I thought for sure that this place held answers. I don't know why I had such a strong feeling-"

"Hold up." She fell silent as Scorch raised her hand to ask for a ceasing of noise. She walked a few short steps over to something odd she noticed about the footprints. "Spectre, look at these here. They look to be about the same size, right?" He pondered silently for a moment, then turned to her. "Well, I suppose so. But what about it? There could have been two members with similar sized feet." She shook her head. "No, because there are two more sets of footprints over there, each of them slightly smaller. Scan these, and run through a database of boots that could have made these imprints."

Spectre vibrated for a moment, then narrowed his eye a tad. "Well, these ones here would belong to the 'Stratus' class of Hunter boots, a model that was sold quite a few years ago. That would line up with the timeline for the Heroes' first visit here." He moved slightly towards the second set of prints. "These ones though, they would have to have been made by the model known as 'Aspriet', a model of boots that only came around relatively recently in the last few years." He looked at her. "What's more, Aspriet is also a Hunter class model of boots."

"Which means that they returned here, but for what?" Scorch narrowed her eyes, then let her gaze follow the Aspriet footprints path. They led towards the back of the room, but there was nothing but a sealed wall there-

Maybe not. She saw that two other sets of prints kept pace with the Aspriets, and they all ended at the edge of the back wall. On a whim, she drew her standard Hunter's blade, and began dragging it sideways across the wall with its point pushing into the structure. If what she thought was here was here, then that would make things a whole lot more-

The tip of the knife sank in slightly, and met resistance. Bingo. She examined where the knife had dipped into the wall and saw that there was a nearly invisible seam, maybe a few hairs thickness in width. It would be almost unseen to the naked eye. If there was a seam, then that meant that whatever this was, it could open. And if it could open, then there wasn't a wall here, but-

"A door," she whispered. Dawn looked at her questioningly. "What?" Scorch ignored her for the moment, and spoke to Spectre again. "Ping the wall here with some echolocation. Tell me what feedback you get." Spectre emitted a small blue pulse from his center, and waited a few seconds. When he had finished, he spun back towards her and spoke with a smug sort of tone.

"The wall is hollow behind it. And since you found that seam there, I can only assume that you are correct in assuming it can be opened." He moved close to it, and shot a few blue beams into it. Instead of simply focusing on one component of the mechanism, however, he scanned the entire door to search for an access point. After several seconds, a _ker-chunk_ sound emanated from behind the newfound entrance, and a rumbling could be heard as it began to push the two panels that created the seam forward, and to each side.

As they slid away from each other, they revealed an open hallway that looked as though it hadn't been touched in many years. And there in the dust on the floor were three sets of footprints, including the Aspriet's. "Well, this is just a hunch, but I think we're gonna follow these for a bit." Scorch entered, tracking the footprints for where they needed to go.

The passage turned out to be just one in a series of hallways they had to traverse. As they walked, each of them formulated theories on why the Heroes had come here. "You said that some Academy members tried to make weapons using Vex tech? Maybe that's what they were after, finding something for the city to use against the Darkness." Dawn shook her head at Eager's suggestion. "He said 'tried'. Doesn't mean that they actually succeeded." Scorch racked her brain for what they could have possibly wanted. "Maybe they were after more research on the Vex? Looking for other ways to fight them?"

This time, it was Spectre who rejected the idea. "That can't be it, or at least not _just_ research. Before pulling out of Venus, the city's scouts grabbed all the possibly useful information that they could. We've got just about every bit of research imaginable that was performed on the Vex, though I'll admit it apparently didn't amount to much. They're just too vast and unknown."

They finally came into a circular room, one which had an exit that led outside. Upon walking through said exit, they found themselves in a large quad. There were buildings surrounding the area, and large trees that grew around the exterior, stretching up with their branches and leaves effectively shielding most of the site from view. "These are the Ishtar Commons," muttered Spectre, "I thought that this place had supposedly been lost to the Fallen long ago."

"Perhaps at one point, it had been. Look," said Eager, pointing at the building on their left. The structure was circular, and it had several entrances in the front, large walkways with roofing above them. Near the walkways were groups of bodies lying around. They jogged over to the bodies to find that they were the skeletal corpses of several Fallen Vandals and Dregs, nearly completely decomposed from the exposure of air and various wild-life such as insects and bacteria.

Eager reached his hand through one's exposed ribcage to push through the long-since rotten flesh inside. When he retracted it, he now held a bullet between his fingers.

"It's definitely a few years old, and human made. From the looks of it, probably fired from a hand cannon." Scorch heard this, and turned to Spectre. "Hey, you've analyzed the Hawkmoon, right? Can you project a small holographic image of what kind of rounds it would fire?" He silently pulsed for a moment, before a grid-like beam emitted from his eye. There in the air was a replica of the Hawkmoon's bullets, and Eager held the round he'd found up to it for comparison. Aside from some erosion and wear, they were a match.

"Alright, so we know they've been through here." Scorch pointed into the building. "They likely killed these bastards here to get inside, so whatever it is was probably pretty important to whatever they were doing." Marching on, the trio entered through one of the openings.

Spectre looked around as they walked. "I'm having to pull up some _old_ , and I mean _old_ maps for this. According to one, this leads to an area they called the 'Hall of Whispers'." Eager looked at him curiously. "What kind of a name is that?"

"Well apparently, most of the top-secret research was done in this facility, the Ishtar Archive. Obviously, scientists had to keep a bit hush-hush about it, hence the 'whisper' part. I can only imagine at what they were working on down here." Spectre's voice sounded a bit uneasy, and that put Scorch on edge. Slowly, she drew the Last Word from its holster at her side, and held it carefully. She was no stranger to guns, as she'd had a very open experience on the streets.

As Spectre had said, they came to a room that was quite a bit larger than they's expected. In front of them was a staircase that led up to a second story, and to their left was just a quicker route to their destination. Taking the ground-route, they found themselves walking into a room that appeared to be a dead end. On the right was a computer console, and directly in front of them was a wall that appeared to incline in an upward direction away from them, almost like a ramp. From what they could see, it was almost entirely covered in plant-growth.

Spectre hovered over to the console. After a few quick scans, he turned back to them. "Alright, so that diagonal wall there is not a wall, but a door. A lot of hidden doors today, huh?" The snarky Ghost accessed the console, and the inclined wall, one that they now knew was a door, began to open. It split in the middle, each side of it moving into their respective walls. The plants were shoved off by the incoming edge, and when the doors were finally open, the ground was littered with green leaves and plant-growth.

A rush of cold air, air that had been sealed in here for years came out and blew through them. The air became chilly, almost a presage of what might have occurred down in the Ishtar Archive's depths. But something nagged at her, something… She felt as though it were right to go down. Her feeling that propelled her was definitely there, urging her to make her way into the darkness of the Ishtar Archive, but it was almost reluctant; as though it wanted her to do it, but it was afraid at something it knew was down there.

She shook her head to clear her mind. If the Heroes had been down here, there might be important clues to find, clues that could lead her to them. Gathering her courage, she began to carefully enter the room.

The immediate area behind the door was an open room, illuminated by artificial light on the left side. Directly in front of her was the way down into the rest of the Archive, a large staircase that led into the deeper sections. She noticed some objects casting several shadows in her peripheral vision over to the far left of the room, and she focused her vision on them to see what they were. As the sound of Dawn and Eager's footsteps came up behind her, she held her hand up to where her mouth would have been, had she not been wearing a helmet. "God…"

In the corner was a group of skeletons. Scorch walked over to them with Spectre, intent on investigating them. There were four of them, with one laying on the ground near the others, one sitting hunched against the wall, and two of them hugging each other on the floor. She wondered who they'd been. She heard Eager ask tentatively from behind her, "You don't think… that's them, do you?" She was about to respond that perhaps some of them were, before she stopped herself. Something clicked. "Hang on… they can't be. Firstly, because one of them, Ash, is an Exo," she said, turning and pointing at Dawn. "That already ruled out that possibility."

She looked back at the bones. "Plus, there's four of them here. There are only three Heroes, that's just basic math. And besides, only five years for full decomposition in a sealed vault? Decomposition that would not only have to eliminate their flesh, but also their clothing and armor? No, these are different people." Eager fell silent, probably feeling slightly embarrassed that he'd suggested such a possibility without even checking basic facts. She looked them over, searching for any form of identification.

Finally, near the skeleton sitting against the wall, she found a laminated ID card, no name, but it did have a bar code and a series of numbers for security access. The barcode had faded considerably and would likely not be valid, but the numbers were still legible. "7-012-6," she muttered. "What?" asked Dawn from behind her. She stood up, and gave a small salute to the skeletons out of respect for whoever they'd been. Then, she turned to Dawn and Eager.

"One of the people had an access code on them when they died. It-" As she looked at it carefully, an idea dawned on her. "Spectre, could you scan this for fingerprints please?" The Ghost looked it over, vibrated slightly, and faced her. "Well, there are quite a few undamaged marks from a human's phalanges. But there are also a few prints that don't have any identifying ridges, almost as though they were made by-"

"Gloves," Scorch interrupted. "Can you guess at what kind of gloves, specifically if they'd been made by Guardians?" He vibrated in the air again, struggling to make such an estimate. "If I had to guess, I would say by a female Warlock. The prints are slimmer than the readable fingerprints, and Warlocks tend to use different materials for their armor than Titans or Hunters. They're more classy, more… uniform."

Scorch smiled. "They were here. They came here, and they picked up this card, which means that they may have needed it. Let's go." Without further explanation, the Seekers continued on down the spiraling staircase they'd seen before.

It was quite some time before they reached the end of the stairs. Evidently, people had believed that the experiments done here were dangerous enough to warrant security in the form being buried hundreds of meters below ground and rock. When they did arrive, they all had a small intake of breath at the sight which awaited them.

The room which they now stood in was evidently a lab of some sort. Inside were catwalks and structures that had been built inside the cave, keeping people from falling into the water below. Large generators and other devices were situated in the water and around the platforms, likely to have a constant source of power. None of them said anything, instead opting to stand in the cold chamber silently, waiting for something to happen.

"Well?" asked Dawn impatiently. "Are we just going to stand here, or…?" At times, Scorch forgot that she was the innocent-minded copy of the Warrior's personality. She probably wasn't nearly as uneasy as she and Eager were. Raising her gun, she slowly walked into the light created from the lamps in the ceiling high above.

"Welcome," came a feminine voice, loud and all around. Scorch tensed up, all of her muscles contracting from sudden surprise. "Please enter your security code to access systems." The voice was obviously automatic, and had likely just been triggered by movement in the lab. Easing up a bit, Scorch relaxed, and stood up straight. "Jesus, that scared me for a sec. Spectre, where can we put in that code?" Spectre emitted a blue pulse, and waited to receive feedback. After a few moments, he turned towards an area in the back of the lab, and said, "This way."

The three Guardians and Ghost moved cautiously through the cave-facility, watching for any signs of a threat. Fortunately, none presented themselves. Their only accompanying stimuli came from the sound of water drops falling into the cavern's own mini-lake below, and the echoes of their footsteps against the metal catwalks.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence and waiting for something to jump out at them, they reached a large cylindrical terminal. Scorch glanced around, checking to be sure that their surroundings were secure. The light was dim though, and she could-

Suddenly, she noticed something on the floor, several meters away and nearly hidden in the shadowed lighting. She narrowed her eyes at it, attempting to see what it was. Figuring that something this small wasn't going to jump at her and kill her, she approached it. It was a bundle of fabric on the ground. And more specifically…

"A cloak." Scorch picked it up, and rotated it around. "This must have been the Hunter's. Matt's." Dawn pointed at it excitedly. "I knew there was something about this place! I knew there was a connection!" Scorch analyzed the cloak further, and upon unfolding it, was surprised to find that there were several burn holes in the fabric, holes that appeared to have been made by weapons that simply singed through the cloth. "No bullets could have made those marks," commented Eager. "Gotta be some kinda Fallen or Vex weaponry. Might have been attacked while they were down here."

"Attacked by what?" she asked, turning around to face him with the cloak still in her hand. "There aren't any bodies around here, what could have attacked them? I don't like this." The Ghost became impatient, and presented himself. "Look, I get it. We know they were here. But in order to find out what for, I need to see what they accessed here." Spectre moved closer, and shot his blue beam into the controls. "7…012…6…" The Ghost muttered to himself as he accessed the machine. There was a pause, and then the computer accepted the code he'd given it. "Thank you, Dr. Shim. Shall I bring up your most recent files?"

Spectre jerked backwards in the air for a moment. "Dr. Shim? Why is that name so familiar…?" Scorch ignored the Ghost's odd behavior, and spoke to the machine. "Yes, bring up the top ten files accessed last and their dates."

"Of course Dr. Shim." The monitor of the console booted up for a moment, and then Scorch saw a line of folders and labels, waiting for her to select them. She found that she could use the monitor by dragging her fingers across it, a touch-screen. Stuff like that wasn't used much anymore, everything was holographic, which meant this facility was _old_. "Okay, this one here is way more than five years old… same… same… most of these are- oh! Got one!" She selected a file named, 'Anomalous Events'.

When it opened, she saw several contents, all of them log entries. She clicked on the first one, and began to read it aloud to Eager and Dawn.

"Alright…'There have been enough events as of now to warrant a protocol for recording them. It started small, a misperception here, a stray thought there. But now, things have progressed. I've noticed that as we study the mind, time seems to move more fluidly, as though it becomes more flexible. Gravity feels odd, somehow. Right now, we're unsure if this is just our exhaustion from researching this thing for so long, or… if it's somehow managing to shift reality a bit.' What?" Scorch stopped reading. "Creepy," commented Eager. Ignoring him, she continued onto another log, one a bit farther on in the list.

" 'It's not us, it's definitely the mind. It's not just editing reality, it's literally creating a rift in time and space. Not a very big one, but enough to send a signal out through the time-stream. That's not even the worst news. Whatever it's sending out, something else is receiving. We're picking up activity in the rift from an unknown source, a source that likely is even more powerful than the mind-core we've currently got in our possession. It makes you wonder; when a child cries for its parent, does the mother or father not come running to help? I hope we can be done with the research quickly, and get the hell away from whatever might be coming.' "

"My God…" whispered Eager. "What the hell were those researchers working on here?" Scorch swallowed, and skipped to the last entry. "This is the final one; 'It's over. We decided last night, we can't risk bringing a warmind here, even if it could save us. For all we know, we might very well be in the right reality, but if we aren't, then what would happen if the Vex did somehow manage to assimilate even some of the complex systems of the warming? Humanity's very survival could be at risk here, but not from an enemy we can just take up arms against. It'd be a war against a foe that could not be beat, one with not unlikely odds, but impossible odds. Everyone would be a slave to its torture, and we can't allow that. Chances are, we're not our originals, and we're just copies in the simulation. Whatever we do, we're screwed. We're going to seal the facility, and wait up near the entrance. If someone does come, we need to be able to warn them. To make them stay away. This place is not ours anymore; it belongs to the mind, to the conflux. And it is pissed.' "

Spectre was silent as she read. Once she had finished however, he spoke up. "I think I know what happened with those skeletons we saw," he said, his tone sounding quite grave. "First though, let's see what files the Heroes accessed."

Moving back to the top ten files, Scorch scrolled through them and found a file with a peculiar name, the last file that had been opened.

"This one's called, 'The Vault of Glass'." She selected it, and its contents consisted of several items; a map, some mathematical notes, and a basic summary of the file. She clicked on the summary. " 'The Vault is a Vex construct, a network of locations and structures run through the very mantle of the planet, though how far is unknown. We've managed to pinpoint what we believe is an entry point, somewhere that the Vault can be accessible through, though it's simply a theory at this point. The only reason we managed to pick this thing up in the first place was due to our attempts to trace the signal from the Vex mind core. Whatever it was communicating with, we found that it's in this so called, 'Vault of Glass', waiting for something. What it's waiting for, we don't know, nor will we be able to find out. Since our discovery of the mind core's nature, we're having a vote tomorrow, after which I'll write the last log entry. I hope whatever we decide, others stay away. They need to stay away from this place, or risk the same fate as us. If you do find this, however, know that whatever threats exist to the Traveler, none of that matters if the Vault of Glass's conflux still lives. It must be destroyed.' "

Scorch stepped away from the monitor, and looked at the two Guardians behind her. "This is what they were doing, looking for the Vault of Glass! Eager, who was that person you talked about earlier? The Stranger?" He nodded. "The Stranger was once the Assassin, ally to the Darkness. But she flipped sides, and even helped two of them with saving the Traveler's Spark, which allowed them to resurrect their dead leader and most of the other Guardians who died in the Battle for the Traveler. She hasn't been seen in a few years though."

Scorch held her left hand, the one holding Matt's old cloak, up to the chin of her helmet as she thought of possible scenarios. "Okay, how about this; the Stranger knows about the Vault of Glass, or at least a possible rumor of it. She tells the three of them that something has been triggered there, and they need to check it out. They find evidence of the Ishtar Archive, and come here to get information. They find out what they need about the Vault, likely its location, and set out to destroy this, 'conflux', that the log talks about."

Dawn looked at Spectre, and addressed the Ghost. "Are there any maps in that file?" He turned back to the monitor, and bobbed in the air. "Yes, there is. It's a layout of the Waking Ruins, with a hand-drawn circle up on top of a cliff-like area, near a Vex door." Scorch clapped her hands together. "That's it! That's why there were so many Vex bodies in that area, they fought them off as they entered the Vault! Why didn't anyone check that door, though?" Spectre vibrated slightly. "Apparently, it's been thought of nothing more than another entrance into the Citadel, another Vex structure nearby. But nobody's ever been able to access it, so they must have written it off as an impossible location for them to go."

Scorch felt elated. She'd managed to figure out where they'd gone, all that was left to do was to bring them home- "Before we celebrate just yet at our discovery though, there is a very important, and very deadly matter for us to discuss." All three Guardians faced Spectre, confused as to the concerned tone in the Ghost's voice. "Like I said, I think that I know what happened to those skeletons. I had to search through quite a few archaic records to find some for Dr. Shim. The man was brilliant, if a little rude. In any case, he, along with the rest of his research group, Chioma Esi, Maya Sundaresh, and Duane-Mcniadh disappeared while working here in the Ishtar Archive. Nobody knew what happened to them, though I suppose with the Collapse happening around them, nobody really cared about four people going missing when millions were being slaughtered. They were never found in any case."

Scorch crossed her arms. "So?" "So, I think that those skeletons we saw are them, or at least what happened to them. And I've managed to piece together clues from a combination of reading those logs and scanning around. See, there's something else in that console." He gestured to the monitor. "Something not human, something… powerful." They all fell silent as they listened to the Ghost, hanging onto every word.

"You see, what they were studying here was a Vex mind-core. Now, an individual Vex is just a leaf on a huge tree, part of the one shared mind that controls every unit simultaneously. But what happens when you take the roots of the tree, and plant them?" Dawn answered, "It grows." Spectre bobbed at her. "Exactly. They had no idea that while they were analyzing this thing, it was doing the exact same thing to them. And it learned, it inferred, it copied. Something happened that made escape for them impossible, and scanning this thing confirms my fears to be true."

"And those would be?" Eager seemed to be hanging onto every word, and just wanted the truth. "As soon as this monitor was reactivated, so was the mind-core. This whole time we've been reading, it's been analyzing us, studying us. And now it's running simulations." "Simulations?" asked Scorch. "What does that mean?" "It means that right now, there is an artificial copy of us in its database, doing the exact same thing we're doing, saying the same things we're saying, and thinking the same things we're thinking."

Dawn crossed her arms. "So? They're just simulations, copies and imitations of us." Spectre shook his body. "Not quite. They are simulations, yes, but the mind core has literally created virtual copies, complete with minds, personalities, memories, you name it. For all intents and purposes, they are alive." Scorch shivered. "That's… disturbing. Can we help them?" Spectre looked at her. "The real question is, can we help ourselves? See, I've looked at the number of copies it's created. It's well over two hundred already, running them all simultaneously, each of them acting just as the originals do. And each of them has a proper mind, an actual sense of being that makes them feel just as the originals do."

"Oh, God…" Eager moaned as he realized whatever Spectre was talking about. Meanwhile, Dawn and Scorch remained confused. "What? What's wrong?"

He turned to them. "They feel just as the originals do, think like they do, act like they do, every single one of them. And there's over two hundred copies, but there will only ever be one reality. Think of the odds."

Scorch held her hand up to where her mouth would have been. "Oh, I think I'm gonna be sick…" He nodded. "Chances are, we aren't the originals. That we're one of the copies. And that means that we're in the Vex simulation right now, where it controls whatever happens to us. It could kill us, torture us for eternity, you name it."

"In the simulation, it's playing God."


	6. Escape from the Mind

"Okay, hold on." Dawn held up her hands as though she were physically trying to slow the frightening train of thought that was traveling around the room. "I mean, how could we be in a simulation? We have to be the originals, right? I certainly don't feel like a copy." Eager shook his head. "None of the duplicates would. They're all a perfect simulation of us, complete with their own sense of being. There's no way to distinguish the originals from the copies." Scorch nodded slowly. "That's why the others died. They didn't want to piss off the mind by trying to escape, so they opted for a more peaceful death and simply locked the place down."

Dawn thought hard for a moment. "Hang on, didn't they talk about a Warmind? About bringing one here?" Spectre looked at her. "They did, but decided against it. They were right too, what would happen if the Vex got ahold of any fraction of a Warming's capabilities? We'd be putting humanity itself at risk."

All were silent as they thought of what to do. None presented any reasonable ideas.

Spectre turned to each of them, watching them struggle to come up with a solution. "I don't know what to tell you all, there's no sure way to know that we're the originals. We could attempt to escape, but then the mind core might react if we were a simulation-"

"Then that's what we'll do." Scorch's interruption brought everyone out of their stupor. "Look, we may not have a definite way to know that we're the originals. But dying here sure as hell isn't an ideal situation." She turned to Spectre. "You said that it's running near-perfect simulations of ourselves, right? Even now?" Spectre vibrated for a second. "Yes, the sims are still doing exactly what you're doing."

"Good." She held up the damaged cloak. "Obviously they were here, but they managed to escape somehow. It does look as though the mind-core definitely reacted," she said, pointing to the singed holes in the fabric, "but they escaped nonetheless. Unfortunately, they didn't destroy the mind core. That's what we're going to correct." She gestured at the central console. "You said that the mind-core's essence is inside here, right?" The Ghost bobbed slowly. "Yes, it is. What are you thinking?" She inhaled deeply, and then exhaled, preparing a simple explanation for them.

"Assuming that we're in a simulation, if we try to leave or do anything, the mind core will react and either torture us for eternity or kill us in brutal ways." She shivered slightly, then paused to regain her composure. "But if it's destroyed, all of the simulations die quickly, and the originals escape. The sims are doomed anyway, and I'm fairly sure that suddenly ceasing to exist is a lot better than whatever the mind core has in store. Are the sims still with us so far?" Spectre checked again. "Yes, they're all saying exactly what you're saying. Amazing, this thing's prediction algorithm…"

She cut him off. "Then it's a unanimous vote. I, along with all of the other sims, will destroy the console. In every single simulation and in the original, their 'Scorch' will destroy the mind-core, and will either cease to exist or will be free to leave." She raised the Last Word, and aimed it at the console.

Spectre pulsed for a moment. "Uh, I'm detecting Vex signatures around the area, growing stronger. They're in all the sims too. My guess is that the mind core is calling for help, but doesn't want to distinguish between originals and copies yet. Do whatever it is you're doing fast."

She nodded. "Anyone have anything they want to say before I do this?" Eager shrugged. "Not much to say, is there?" Dawn sighed. "My thoughts exactly. Either we'll live, or we won't. Why delay?" Scorch acknowledged their sentiments with a quick nod, and faced the console again. "Spectre, what are the chances that we're the originals?" The Ghost pulsed. "1/237 and the number keeps shrinking with every sim that is created."

Scorch inhaled and exhaled quickly. "Guys, just in case we're one of the 236 copies instead of the originals and we die right now, I just wanna say thanks for accompanying me on this. I know it's kinda your jobs, but I don't have many friends and I'm glad to consider you two in that category." Dawn gave her a thumbs up in response, but Eager seemed taken aback. "Really? I haven't had that feeling at all from you." She shrugged. "I'm not the best at expressing emotions. You'll learn to tolerate it."

She hesitated only a second more, and took the time to look down at the cloak she held in her other hand. In a split-decision, she pulled the cloak over her helmet and wore it. _I will not give up on rescuing you, I swear_ she thought to herself as she did so. Wearing the cloak was not a manner of cosmetics, but a promise; a promise that she would make it out of here in some reality, even if it wasn't this one, and she would rescue the Heroes. With a determined expression upon her face, she pulled the trigger of the hand cannon, firing round after round into the mind core's link to life.

The console immediately ceased to work. The monitor shut down, and sparks began flying from the holes created by the bullets that had punched through the exterior of the console and destroyed the wiring within. Scorch cautiously looked around and exhaled a sigh of relief when she realized they were still alive and breathing.

"Guhh…" Scorch felt her knees turn slightly wobbly from the feeling of all the tension in her body leaving her out of joy that they were the originals. Spectre flew over to the now destroyed console and analyzed it.

"No activity detected. The mind core is definitely dead, as are the sims. For them, life just seemed to… stop. No pain, no torture. It was the best outcome for them." Scorch felt an odd emotional pain spread throughout her chest. The sims may have only been copies, but they'd all been real minds, with real personalities and memories. Albeit, copies of real memories, but still. The odds had been likely that they themselves would be sims, but luckily they turned out to be the 1 out of 237.

Spectre began vibrating frantically. "The Vex! They're still coming!" Indeed, clouds began emanating from several blue lights that had appeared throughout the room. "Seekers, move!" Scorch yelled, and they all began to sprint toward the exit. One of the clouds in front of them dissipated and revealed a few Goblins that turned to look at them as they ran. Raising her weapon, Scorch fired off several rounds into the chests of the robotic organisms. Two of them fell under the gunfire, while the other three raised their arms to take aim. Dawn dashed forward and shoulder charged one of them, sending it flying back several meters into pieces. Eager extended his hands and let a jet of flame shoot from the palm of his hand, engulfing the last two Goblins' heads in fire.

As the robotic organisms fell, more moved in to fill their place. Red beams of searing hot energy were flying from every direction across the room. Weaving in and around in an evasive sort of dance, the trio managed to make it to the exit door, and began ascending the spiral staircase. With their footsteps echoing off the walls of the passage, they continued sprinting out of the archive until they reached the massive slanted door that Spectre had opened for them to enter.

"Spectre, lock down that entrance! Make sure that nothing gets through!" Complying, the Ghost moved over to the console on the side of the hallway, and began accessing the mainframe. Slowly, the two doors on either side began to slide towards each other to close the gap that allowed entry to the archive. With a loud rumble, they met in the middle and ceased to move.

She panted and looked to her two companions. They stood with expressions of just as much awe as she felt. Motioning with her hand, she gestured towards the Hall of Whispers.

"I'm, uh… I'm gonna call this mission for today. We'll pick up where we left off tomorrow, but I think we've made good progress these last few hours, don't you?" Both of them nodded their heads in agreement. Scorch started to shakily walk out and towards the exit with the other trailing close behind.

-X-

Scorch laid down on her bed and tried to relax. Dawn was out in the living room, sleeping on the spare mattress that Scorch had bought out in the city and brought back for her. She figured that the woman couldn't keep sleeping on a couch in a friend's apartment, but should sleep on a _mattress_ in a friend's apartment. She hoped that made more sense.

She looked over at the trophy they'd collected, now hanging on the back of her door. The lost Hunter's cloak still bore many scars of war, but Scorch liked it that way. It made her feel as though she were a part of all those experiences, as though she were following in the footsteps of its previous owner. Technically, following his footsteps was exactly what her job was, but she tried to ignore that.

Scorch gave it a brief nod as though Matt could see her. She hadn't been kidding herself when she'd made that vow down in the archive. This cloak would be a reminder to her everyday, a reminder of the promise that she'd made to find the Heroes, and if possible, bring them home safely. They'd saved her life, and she wouldn't stop feeling in their debt until she repaid that favor. Sighing, she shut her eyes, and drifted off into slumber.

* * *

Note from the Author: I do apologize for this very short chapter, but there are two main reasons for it; one is that any sort of continuation to this chapter just doesn't feel right. I wanted this chapter to simply be about resolving the cliffhanger from the last chapter, but I couldn't extend the chapter any more than what I've done now. The second reason is that with school and work taking up most of my free time, I don't have a proper schedule to write. Once thanksgiving break comes around, I'll have more time, but there will likely be a large chapter gap between this one and the next one. I hope you all understand!


	7. Templar's Dwelling

"Okay, allow me to understand this." Commander Zavala massages the temple of his forehead with his two front fingers as he tried to comprehend what the Seekers had told him. "You mean to tell me that you were trapped in a Vex simulation with over two hundred copies of yourselves, and made it back here in one piece?" Scorch nodded regretfully. " _We_ did at least. The rest of the copies, as well as the mind core, were destroyed when I shot the console it was inhabiting."

"Aren't we forgetting something just a bit important here?" interrupted Cayde, and the others turned to look questioningly at them. "I can see you've got a cloak on your back finally, but from where? If that's whose I think it is-" Scorch nodded again. "Yes, it's Matt's. They were there at some point too, though how they managed to evade the mind-core… I don't know."

The Hunter Vanguard whistled while Ikora's eyes widened in astonishment. "They were there? How did you find anything like this, we searched for months-"

Dawn began to explain. "Scorch realized that there were multiple sets of footprints in the Ishtar Academy's first room, meaning that they had returned there at some point. Once we figured out where they'd gone, it was a simple matter of following their trail."

The Vanguard seemed to be at a loss for words. Cayde managed to say, "You have brought us closer to finding them then we got in over five years. Hell of a job, if I do say so myself." Ikora raised a hand to quiet him. "Yes, but it's still not close enough. Did you find anything else? Any clues as to where they might have gone afterwards?"

Eager took the reigns of the conversation. "A few files down in the Archive had been opened within the time frame of them visiting it. One was titled… something about a Vault, I think?" Spectre bobbed in mid-air. "Yes, the Vault of Glass."

Ikora gasped and Zavala's brows furrowed considerably. Even Cayde stopped for a moment and looked at them with something akin to fear in his electric eyes. "I'm sorry, did you say 'Vault of Glass'?" Eager took a few steps back, obviously having not expected this reaction. "Yeah, why?"

The Warlock Vanguard's skin had turned slightly pale from the utterance of the phrase. "The Vault of Glass is supposed to be a legend, a rumor of a Vex chamber where an unspeakable evil dwells. We didn't think it existed, but you said there was a file in the Archive?"

Spectre looked at her. "Indeed. It spoke of how something within the Vault was communicating with the mind-core in the Archive. If I had to guess, it would be the conflux that the file spoke of, the conflux of the Vault." He vibrated slightly. "But that bit confuses me. From what I've always understood, Vex confluxes are more of anchor points, or data archives. But they're definitely not alive. The file said, however, that everything is at risk as long as that conflux still lives. What does that mean?"

Cayde shrugged. "Your guess is as good as ours. Like we said, we had no idea this thing even existed for real until about five minutes ago." Suddenly, his face turned blank as a thought crossed his mind. "Why is the Vault even- oh no, don't tell me what I think you're going to tell me."

Zavala and Ikora looked at him curiously. He continued, "You believe that the Heroes accessed that file on the Vault, right? The one telling them whatever they needed to know?" Scorch nodded hesitantly. He faced the other Vanguards with his face full of panic. "Think about it, why would Matt, Ash, and Aria have been looking for info about the Vault? Entertainment? There's only one reason they'd be trying to find out anything they could about it." Ikora gasped for the second time in as many minutes. "They would immediately try to destroy it, to conquer it! Oh, what fools they were…"

Scorch raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that good that they would try to do something like that?" Zavala shook his head. "Along with the legends of the Vault have come tales of Guardians attempting to breach it. There was a story of three Guardians who tried a very long time ago, a story that is now told to children as an old folks tale." Ikora nodded. "The tale of the three, Kabr, Praedyth, and Pahanin. It's said they were the bravest of their time, and ventured down into its pits to seek an end to the threat."

"What happened to them?" asked Scorch. "Did they succeed?" Ikora met her gaze with steely eyes. "Out of the three, only Pahanin made it out, and he was said to be forever scarred by what he witnessed down there." Scorch felt a lump in her throat, and attempted to rid herself of it unseen. She said with a shaky voice, "Is that all?"

"No." The Warlock closed her eyes. "The last that had been said to attempt it was Kaine. We thought nothing of it, figuring it was nothing but a child's tale, and did nothing to stop him. He wanted a way to fight off the shackles of fate, to rid himself of the illusion of free will, and obtain true power in defying destiny. He never came back, but if he truly succeeded in doing so…"

"Then the Heroes aren't the only ones we have to find," finished Scorch. Ikora nodded. "The evil in the Vault may be this conflux you spoke of, and considering the power over time that the Vex have exhibited in the past, I worry that it would be too much power in the wrong hands." She corrected herself. "Actually, it's already in the wrong hands, but it could be in much worse hands."

Cayde pointed at the Seekers. "Alright, we've got a game plan. Scorch, take your team and get back out there. Do whatever it takes, _but_ _you have to get into that Vault!"_ Zavala evidently agreed with him. "I concur, and take note; the Heroes went in there seeking to end the threat. I've never met a more tenacious team of Guardians, and I highly doubt they'll want to leave without finishing their mission. Make sure you get them out no matter what, this is too important!"

Scorch nodded, and turned abruptly to exit the hall. Eager and Dawn followed after her, now with a mission in mind; to bring the Heroes home no matter the cost.

-X-

The Seekers approached the Waking ruins. They looked around the large open space to see the massive circular door that had been so incorrectly assumed to be harmless sitting upon a cliff in from of them. Vex stone structures littered the area, half sunken into the ground. On the left of the clearing was a staircase made out of the same material and built into the dirt. The same staircase connected with the large precipice on which the door sat, connected with a path of grass and overgrowth that had spread over the steps. On the right was a collapsed section of ruins that stood high above the left side of the clearing, and had also become overgrown with moss and other plant-life.

Slowly, they made their way towards the door. As they walked up the left side, Dawn noticed that there was a rectangular pillar standing inside a ring placed upon the ground. It was a most peculiar sight, and she wondered what it was for. Setting aside her inquisitive nature for now, she simply followed Scorch and Eager up the hill to the entrance to the Vault.

They stopped just a few feet short of the large access point, and stared at it. Eager looked questioningly at Dawn and Scorch. "Any ideas on how to get in there?" Scorch appeared to be stumped. "I… I'm not really sure. Could we blow it up maybe…?" Spectre made his way over to the door, and scanned it. "You could try, but it wouldn't do much. From the density of the material this door is made from, anything less than a nuke won't put much of a dent in it."

Scorch threw her hands in the air frustratedly while Dawn decided to look around a bit more out of curiosity. Glancing behind her, she noticed that another pillar stood behind them a few meters, also surrounded by a ring. Beginning to put the pieces together, she looked even farther up on the collapsed structure to see a third instance of the odd pillars. Something about them seemed familiar to her…

While Eager and Scorch discussed with Spectre on the quickest way inside, Dawn walked slowly over to the pillar behind them. She knelt down just at the edge of the ring, and stuck her hand through the assumed boundary. Immediately, tiny white cubic pixels began to integrate around her hand. They weren't solid, merely lights that rose upward from the ring, following its circular path around the pillar. All of them began to appear, emanating from the point in which she'd punctured the non-solid barrier, and soon there was a roughly two-foot tall circle of white cubes that had ascended from the metal ring on the ground.

"Uh, guys?" she called, hoping that her companions would see this. The others turned around to see the discovery that she'd made. "What the hell?" Eager walked over to her and took the same position as she did, kneeling on the ground with his hand outstretched. "What does this do?"

Almost as though it were responding to his question, a deep humming could be heard, and they turned to look towards the source of the sound. In the middle of the clearing down below was a stone pedestal, and as they watched, even more white pixels began to appear and build themselves up from the pedestal in the shape of a large vertical-standing rectangular cuboid.

"Is that it? Do we need to unlock the door by using these things?" Scorch posed the question to anyone in general, and Dawn nodded in response. "I believe so, but there's two others on the sides. I think we need to have all three to-" She stopped talking as she watched a Minotaur teleport into existence near the base of the left side. Its intent was made known when it walked calmly into the circle down there, and the white lights began to shift into an angry red hue. She watched as the pixels on the Pedestal began to disappear and regress.

"Stop that Vex!" Dawn yelled, and without question, Scorch leapt up and fired several rounds down below into its chest. The tore through its outer plating, and a moment later, it fell over. The lights turned white again, but the damage was done, and the pixels began constructing themselves anew. Several blue orbs of light began to wink into sight near each of the three pillars, and Scorch knew what had to be done. "We can't let them get into those rings! We have to defend them until that door is open!" Dawn nodded, and turned to Eager. "You heard her, let's move!"

True to their loyalty, they instantly moved into action. Dawn made a beeline for the ring on the collapsed ruins while Eager sprinted for the lower ring near the base of the stairs. Scorch remained at the center, and began to focus her aim on a group of Goblins that had materialized nearby and were steadily carving a path towards her ring.

Dawn made it to her ring just as a Minotaur was about to enter it. She leapt forward, and focused energy into her fists. She struck the ground next to it, sending large vibrations rumbling through its legs before the electrical pulse washed over it and obliterated everything within a ten foot radius. She then stood back up, unslung her auto rifle, and began to fire upon the other waves of enemies attempting to breach the circle.

Eager lobbed a grenade of solar energy over at a Hobgoblin coming too close to the ring. It exploded in a fiery burst that ejected liquid flame all over the surrounding area, completely drenching its target. As the Vex soldier began to vanish in orange light, Eager popped a new magazine into his sidearm, and let loose a long torrent of bullets upon other challengers to the area he defended.

Meanwhile, Scorch found herself backing up against the pillar as she continued to lose ground to several Minotaurs attempting to relinquish her control over the ring. They were going down, but not at as fast as more kept appearing. Turning around and feeling for the top edge of the pillar, she pulled herself up and scrambled onto the flat top. Upon reaching it, she spun around and let the Last Word fly with its thunderous sound echoing all around the surrounding area. Eventually, she dispatched most of the attackers, only to see another group teleporting in a mere twenty feet away. Panting heavily from the rush of adrenaline coursing through her, she glanced at the constructed pixels progress in the middle. Surprisingly, they had reached a considerable height, and now that familiar Vex stone material was beginning to form where the pixels were, as though it was pulling the mass from an external dimension or something similar.

Before she got too distracted, she looked around to see that in addition to the group she'd spotted walking over to her, another had begun walking up the side of the dirt path to her right, or rather on the left side of the clearing in orientation to the door. It was too much, she was alone and didn't have the experience of the other two. She uttered a soft growl or moan of determination; she was getting to those Heroes, she was going to bring them home, _and these Vex weren't going to do a damn thing about it._

She felt a curious warmth in her arm, and looked down to see a spurt of purple flames licking the palm of her left hand. Her intuition, the feeling that guided her for being a Child of Light came over her again, and she knew what it was meant for. Aiming at the group on her right, she tossed the fire down onto the ground. It instantly grew lengthwise, effectively creating a barrier of which they could not cross without dissolving into void energy. On her left, she felt a surge of power within her chest, and she leapt up in the air reaching behind her for something…

A purple bow of pure void energy appeared in her grasp, and when she pulled her other hand back it held an arrow of the same make. She instinctively pulled the arrow across the gaseous form of the drawstring, and let it fly. It burned a hole through the Minotaur it impacted against, and landed neatly on the ground behind it. As its first target fell, the projectile suddenly split, a void line tethering each enemy nearby to the arrow. They could not move, paralyzed by the energy which ensnared them, and Scorch pulled out her trusty weapon to finish hem off. Within seconds, the last of her enemies had become a smoking heap of metal.

Suddenly, a noise rang out. It sounded synthetic, and Scorch searched for the source. She found that the pixel-structure was now completely replaced with the Vex-stone, and at the top was a small white light. This light emitted a pulse that spread over the entire clearing.

Before Scorch could react or give any orders, the pulse had washed over her and her companions. Nothing happened to them, and she inspected her body to make sure of that. But the Vex were a different story. Dawn held her auto rifle ready to fire, but the Goblins she'd been fighting had frozen, stuck in some form of paralysis. The female Exo looked confused as her helmeted head spun left and right in bewilderment as to what had just happened. Down below, Eager simply poked one tentatively, and watched nonchalantly as the particular Minotaur he'd prodded fell backwards and landed against the stone steps with a large clang.

A beam of white light jetted out from the light which had created the pulse, and it made a beeline in the air for the large circular door which granted access to the Vault. On cue, a rumbling could be heard as the mechanisms of the door began to unlock. Dawn and Eager joined Scorch where she stood to watch this spectacle unfold. The circular door's plating and sheets which made up its structure began to rotate upwards to each side consecutively throughout several layers of metal, until the bottom third of the door was now open.

Beyond the entrance, Scorch could see a set of stairs descend for a short while before becoming embedded in rock, upon which the rest of the path formed, likely through some caves. She looked to either side of her, watching her companions masked faces. Dawn's visor depolarized, and Scorch could see the Exo's shocked expression. "Holy…"

Eager pointed at it. "Now _that_ , was a tough lock. But we beat it, right? We can enter?" He turned to stare at Scorch, and she nodded. Reaching her left hand down, she reached for a corner of the cloak she wore, remembering her promise. She gripped it tightly for a second, then let go and nodded in response. "We can enter."

Scorch tentatively took several steps toward the entrance. A rush of cold air greeted her, blowing out from the depths of the caves inside. She stood hesitantly for a few moments in the last little stretch of light that lit up the immediate area of the entryway, before taking a deep breath and forcing herself to walk down the steps.

"So," called out Eager, "I see you managed to summon your super ability. How did it feel?" Scorch could tell he was simply trying to make conversation in the darkness, but she was genuinely inclined to respond. "It felt… well, it felt like one of the best feelings in the world, like I could take on anything. Do all supers feel like that?"

Eager shrugged. "When you cast a super ability, the Traveler's light fills you with itself, granting you strength and power. It's not hard to imagine how empowering that makes people feel." Scorch thought this was an adequate response, and accepted it.

After several minutes of walking, the cave opened up a bit. On their right was a large crevice, like a crack in a glacier. In front of them, the rocky ground turned to copper-colored grates of Vex structure. They walked across it cautiously, maneuvering their necks around to see if anything nearby posed a threat to them. After the grate platforms, another passageway made up of the Vex-stone beckoned to them. Reluctantly, they all continued their progress and entered.

Spectre flew around them, analyzing everything they passed. "I'm compiling a blueprint of the entire structure for further study later. This place truly is incredibly large, and that's only a guess from the echolocation pings I sent out a while ago!" He vibrated contentedly each time a scan was completed. Scorch smirked. "I guess even deserter Ghosts have a love for information, huh?" The Ghost paid her no mind, and continued on his project.

When the hallway opened up again, there was a collective gasp from all three of the Seekers. Before them was an enormous chasm, spanning for what looked like miles in either direction. "All of this has been hidden from us for how long?" asked Eager breathlessly. "At least a few hundred years," responded Spectre. "But in all honesty, the place could be hundreds of thousands of years old, and we wouldn't know it."

Dawn's head snapped toward the Ghost at his odd statement. "What? What do you mean?" Spectre lazily floated around them. "Knowing what I do about the Vex and their reality bending technology, as well as power over time, it's not hard to imagine that this place could have been locked out of time, and simply pulled into Venus itself when the Vex took it over."

In front of them were large Vex-stone platforms that rose out of the depths below, and awaited someone to use them. Scorch pointed them out to her fellow companions. "I'm assuming we'll need to use these to get to where we need to go."

Dawn stepped forward. "I'll jump first, test it out." Scorch moved to argue, but Dawn held up a hand. "Relax, I can handle myself. It's just a small jump." With that, the Titan lined up her trajectory, ran forward and leapt down to the stone below. She hit the ground with an echoing thud, and bent her knees to absorb the impact, as well as placing both her hands on the ground in front of her to stop herself from slamming completely into the structure. She then stood up, and waved Scorch and Eager over. "It's stable," she called. "Just be careful, and be prepared for the landing."

Both of them landed on the stone behind her, and Dawn held her hand outward towards the next one. "Now that we know it's stable, after you fearless leader." Scorch snorted. "Fearless? Yeah, right." Nonetheless, she followed Dawn's example, and jumped to the next platform, a process which they repeated several times until they reached a final area that acted as a cliff, hanging out from the rocky side of the cave interior. In the middle of the outcrop was an extension of the Vex-stone, one that almost looked like a pier or dock reaching into empty space. All three Guardians walked up to the edge, and looked outward.

Below the extended stone was an arena of sorts. Scorch looked up and around it, finding that there were staircases on either side of the large chamber, as well as in the middle. There was something glowing in the very center of the arena, in what looked to be a pool of light. And just beyond that was another circular door like the one they'd entered earlier.

"Another door," muttered Eager to the side of her, echoing her thoughts. "How do you suppose we get past that one?" To this, Scorch didn't have an answer. She tried to think of something, but before she could set her mind to it, she felt her guiding feeling come over her again, and her gaze fell upon the glowing pool below. She gestured at it.

"Something tells me that we're gonna need whatever that is." With no time to waste, Dawn leapt down to the floor of the arena below. Eager followed suit, as did Scorch a moment later. He landed on the ground fairly close to the edge, and she shifted to avoid hitting him-

She felt herself fall short of the floor, and she hit the edge of the stone, her chest impacting hard against the ground while her legs dangled off the side in the void. She began sliding backwards off the edge, but managed to quickly grasp the edge with her left hand before she fell completely. There, she hung over the precipice while grunting from the effort it was taking not to fall. A moment later, Dawn's hand reached down and gripped the Hunter's wrist strongly, then began pulling Scorch back up and over the top of the edge.

"Maybe next time, plan your jump rather than being too eager? That's his job," she chuckled, nodding her head towards the Warlock nearby. "Har har," he said mockingly, annoyed at the pun of his name. Dawn shrugged. "What next?"

Scorch walked over to the staircase in the middle of the arena, the one that led down to the pool of glowing light. She started to descend the steps as Dawn and Eager watched her carefully nearby. When she finally made it to the pool of light below, she say that some kind of object hovered in the center of it.

"What is it?" Dawn called, curious as to what it could possibly be. Scorch looked it over, and found that it took the shape of a shield, a fancy one at that. It appeared to be made of pure blue and white light, and an aura of energy surrounded it. She began to step inside the pool as Eager protested.

"Hey, wait a second, we don't know-!" Before he could finish, Scorch was already within the pool's boundaries, and nothing had happened. Regardless, Eager still looked to be on edge, and kept his eyes trained for any signs of trouble. He didn't trust any of this, and he sure as hell didn't want any of them getting killed. Both Dawn and Scorch seemed to have forgotten exactly where they were, which was an ancient place of legend, said to hold an evil of unimaginable levels. He hadn't, and he was going to treat this place as such.

Scorch stepped toward the shield. A blinding white arc of energy was pulled against the blue hard-light of the shield's structure. This was likely the strap that one would use to wield it. The feeling was now more powerful than ever, urging her to pick up the shield and use it for… what, exactly? She knew that what she felt was her fate guiding her, but it still created more questions than answers. Either way, she knew that she needed to pick up that shield to get to the Heroes, and that was all the motivation she needed to reach forward and loop her arm through the white arc.

Immediately, she felt a sensation of warmth spread through her, electrifying. The energy from the shield flowed into her, and tingled her nerves, as though someone were prodding her with pins and needles everywhere on her body. It felt great, almost an ecstasy throughout her sense of being, it was wonderful-

A noise emanated from the recesses of the chasm, and all throughout the air. It seemed to come from everywhere at once, a deep groaning as though something were waking up.

 _They disturb the Aegis…_ The voice that said this came from the same source as the groan, perhaps made even by the same entity. It was deep, menacing. It sounded masculine in nature, but Scorch couldn't precisely determine the gender of an echoing voice in the darkness.

 _They mean to enter the Vault, and delay my plans like the others…_ Above, Scorch could see Dawn and Eager spinning around to look for the source of the voice. Evidently, they could hear it too, which meant that this had nothing to do with Scorch's guidance. The others… that had to refer to the Heroes!

She tried to reach out to the voice. "Are… are you the conflux?" Silence answered her, as the voice pondered her query. _How do they know of the conflux…?_ asked the voice to itself, sounding wary but impressed. She tried again. "My name is Scorch, I'm only here to retrieve a group of Guardians that may have come here in the last few years. I did not know the Vex were capable of reason-" The voice interrupted her.

 _The Vex have no reason, only their hatred. As for me…_ It paused, as though trying to answer properly. After a few seconds, it appeared to have found one.

 _You seek others like yourselves?_ Scorch exhaled slightly, glad that she was making headway. "Yes. That is all."

It groaned, evidently not believing her. _No, there is something different… unusual about your aura…_ Scorch gasped slightly as she felt some kind of invisible presence probe her, explore her body and penetrate her very soul. She could _feel_ her soul, as thought this thing was making it a tangible object.

In an instant, the tendrils of it recoiled, disgusted by something it had found. _No! A Child of Light, here… another one brought up in tales of their own legacy and destiny…_

Scorch hurriedly tried to patch things up. "That doesn't matter! Yes, I may be intended to bring about the Balance, but…" Something dawned on her. "Hang on… another Child of Light?"

The voice sounded angry. _You will not bring your fate in here… I have defied destiny, held it at bay for a great time you have not known… yet, you would end all I have with your own._

She attempted one last time to get a word in. "Please, if you would just hear me out…!"

 _ENOUGH!_ The voice cut her off. _There will be no more talk. You will not retrieve those which you seek, and you will not enter the sanctum of the Vault! Prepare, for your final breath will be taken in the Templar's Well!_

She looked up at Dawn and Eager who were anxiously looking around for trouble.

"Final breath at Templar's Well… that doesn't sound like too promising a prospect," muttered Dawn. Eager nodded. "I concur. Scorch, what do we do?"

Before she could answer, a light began to glow from behind her, and she looked up onto the ledge that stood before the door they needed to go through. Something big began to materialize on top of it, something massive…

With a screech that sounded like scraping metal, an enormous Vex monstrosity appeared. It hovered above the ground, with a large metallic body much in the shape of a upside down triangle. Its bottom trailed onward until it split into several segments that magnetically kept close together, and moved with the creature. A cylindrical shield stood vertically, effectively protecting it on all sides from damage.

"Figure that's the Templar?" yelled Eager, shaking slightly as the Templar's screeches echoed around the cavern and vibrated against the walls and ground, making it unstable.

"There's not much that gets by you, is there?" shouted Dawn in response. Scorch only stood there and watched in horror as the Templar began to charge itself with blue lights, preparing to unleash something.

 _You seek your destiny… but here, you will find only your own destruction._ The Templar suddenly let loose a wave of energy, a pulse that spread throughout the chamber and was powerful enough to knock everyone off their feet, skidding backwards from the force.

Scorch hit her head against the steps behind her, and began to black out. As she did, she heard the voice give its final thoughts;

 _Here, you will find only Darkness, Child of Light._


	8. The Vault of Glass

The voice's presence abruptly retreated, as though it had severed the a connection between comm channels.

Eager shook his head to clear his mind, and hopefully get rid of the annoying ringing that kept bouncing around within it. Looking around wildly to gain understanding of what had happened, he saw that Dawn was nowhere to be found. Turning this way and that, his gaze finally landed upon a set of fingers gripping the edge of the arena, much like Scorch's had looked when she'd been hanging on to prevent herself from falling into the chasm. He rushed over to where she was, and peered over the precipice.

"Hey, mind giving me a hand?" grunted the Titan. Her legs swung wildly in the empty space, and without a proper grip, she was going to fall.

"Just hold on!" he called, and he began kneeling down reach out and grab her. Before he could however, the Vex-stone she was holding began to crumble under her fingers, and she fell out of his reach. He lunged wildly for her, but she had already fallen down to the next outcrop roughly ten feet below. Her hands moved fanatically to grab something, and managed to grasp the second ledge, preventing her from falling further. Eager waved at her to get her attention.

"Okay, just hang in there, I'm gonna grab Scorch, and then come back for you alright?" Without waiting for an answer, he stood up and jogged back over to the top of the staircase.

He looked down to where Scorch lay on the steps, dazed but alive. He immediately began firing at the Templar, trying to take its attention away from her. He knew that it was shielded, but maybe it would ignore her for the time being, and he could buy her some time to ready herself. The Templar screeched at him and began to disappear in a cloud of pixel-like sparks. He wildly looked around for where it was before he saw it reappear behind him, and charge up again.

Scorch groaned as she lifted her head, and attempted to sit up. Lights kept dancing in and out of her vision, and she blinked at a rapid pace in an attempt to get rid of them. Hearing loud noises behind her, she looked to see Eager engaging the Templar, which had apparently teleported behind them. Its body was pulsating with blue light again, as it prepared to unleash another wave of energy.

Suddenly, she became aware once more of the warm feeling in her arm. Glancing down, she saw that the shield, or the Aegis as the voice had called it, was lit up. Out of instinct, she held it towards the Templar, and thought of some way it could attack the being. In an instant, a bluish-white orb of light ejected itself from the center of the Aegis, and traveled the ten or so meters through the air to the Templar, where it impacted against the shield.

Immediately, the shield disappeared, or did for the most part, flickering in and out of existence as it did. The Templar's charge was halted in a single moment, and it faced her, its roars full of malice. Eager, who was still up above, took the time to begin raining fire upon the massive Vex, both with his gun and with his fusion grenades. Flames licked the side of the Templar, beginning to melt some of the metal that made up the outer shells of its body. Most of the bullets ricocheted off the hard surfaces of its form, but some managed to penetrate its plating, and found targets within its mechanisms.

The Templar screamed in rage, and teleported once more. This time, it appeared at the door again, where it had originally come into play. Scorch turned and locked gazes with Eager. Tiredly, she waved her arm in a dismissive fashion. "Go get Dawn, wherever she is," she groaned, her voice hoarse. He nodded, and began running back towards the ledge where Dawn had fallen.

The female Exo was still holding on, when she came across an idea. All Titans and Warlocks had stabilizers built into their armor systems, jump packs of sorts. If she could simply kick off the wall and grab the edge above…

Eager's helmeted head appeared, leaning over the cliff. "Dawn, I'm gonna try to get to you!" She shook her head, and grunted with the exertion. "No need, just get ready to catch me!"

He muttered questioningly, "Catch me…?" before she brought her right leg up, and used it to push herself upwards, even the slightest bit. As soon as she had momentum, she activated her stabilizers, and they boosted her another eight feet or so. She was right there at the edge, but still too short. She stretched out her arm, and…

Eager's fingers closed around her wrist. He lifted himself back from the edge, pulling her up alongside him. Shaking slightly, Dawn collapsed on the ground next to him. "Thanks," she panted. He nodded once in acknowledgement, then spun around to gaze at where Scorch was, currently investigating the Templar.

As the Hunter looked on, green lights began to wink on on its body as opposed to the blue ones. She wondered for a moment what this meant, before a musical note sounded somewhere behind her. Jerking her head in surprise, she tried to find the source, only to see that some kind of cubic green orb had appeared behind her, between her and her companions.

"Spectre, what is that?" Her Ghost's response sounded puzzled. "I don't know, I suppose it could be an outlet-"

Scorch fell to the ground, and clutched at her head. Spectre now sounded alarmed. "Scorch?! What's going on… your vitals are flatlining!" Indeed, it certainly felt that way. Every muscle in her body was contracting, and felt as though a giant fist was squeezing them tighter until they would burst. Her head alone was enduring a pain not unlike being crushed by bricks.

Lifting her head, she saw that despite not having organic bodies like her, Dawn and Eager were similarly afflicted with the sickness she was experiencing. Somewhere in the back of her head, she could hear a sort of chanting, but as quiet as a whisper… _Marked, marked, marked, marked, marked, marked…_

She began crawling to the thing with every intention to destroy it. Fortunately, it seemed that while whatever-the-orb-was was active, the Templar was incapable of creating the pulse it normally did. Now dragging herself forward, Scorch's knees were scraping the ground every time she gained distance. Eager had already fallen, and now only she and Dawn were trying to reach the orb.

Within a few more seconds, Dawn began to fail as well. She continued to reach out towards the orb, determined not to give up. Her hand was shaking from the experience, and after several more seconds of paralyzed pain, she collapsed on the ground, convulsing in many fits and spasms.

Scorch continued to pull herself forward, inch by inch. The only thing driving her now was pure tenacity. Once she believed she was close enough, she pulled the Last Word from her belt, and began unloading hell into the orb until the magazine ran empty. Small pixelated bits of it began to disappear, as though they were being erased. Red spots were now taking up the majority of her vision, and she knew it was now or never. Instead of reloading, she simply drew back her fist as far as she could, and with as much force as she could muster, drove it through the orb and destroyed it.

The feeling lifted in less than a second, and she inhaled deeply, gasping for air. Dawn's convulsions ceased, and the Titan stood back up shakily. Eager pushed himself off the floor with his hands, and looked around confusedly. "What the hell was that thing?!"

Scorch shook her head. "I don't know, but it's obviously not good." Facing about, she hefted the Aegis up again, and took aim at the Templar, whose green lights had disappeared. "As soon as that shield goes down, take it!" Without waiting for a response, she fired another beam of light into the shield, and watched as the Templar became vulnerable again.

Eager and Dawn wasted no time in opening fire, and soon the air was filled with the sound of whizzing bullets and denting metal. In response to this, the Templar teleported to another corner in the left of the arena, and began to glow green again. Its shield was still down however, and Scorch quickly barked out several orders.

"You two keep you sights trained on it, and don't let up! I'm gonna find that orb!" She sprinted off hurriedly, and began to search for that signature yellowish-green glow. Eventually, she spied it coming into existence near the right side of the arena, on an extended platform. The feeling began to come back, but before it could grip her in full, Scorch had sprinted forward and sliced the Aegis through the air, effectively splitting the orb in 2. It began to depixelate, quickly fading from existence.

"Scorch, need a hand!" Answering Eager's call, she began to run back towards her two companions. Coming into position, she saw that the Templar had teleported once again near the doorway. She motioned to Dawn and Eager.

"This is it, last one! Get ready!" She was quick to hold the Aegis steady, and release one last burst of energy. The shield went down for hopefully the last time, and the Seekers began letting loose everything they had on it. It was visibly smoking from all the gunfire, but it wasn't going to be enough. Scorch could see that blue lights were beginning to charge all along its body…

"Oh no you don't!" In a movement quick as a viper, she swung her arm forward and sent the Aegis spinning like a boomerang through the air. Like a ninja star, it sank deep into the Templar's torso area, and embedded itself there. Evidently it had penetrated something vital, because the blue lights began to wink out. A second or two later, a red glow could be seen emanating from the vicinity of the Aegis' impalement, and before anyone could react, the torso exploded, and spewed chunks of flaming metal everywhere.

The Seekers stood frozen, save for Dawn casually wiping a burning piece of debris off of her shoulder. Eager slowly bent forward to look at both of them. "So… is that it?"

Scorch brought up her right hand, now holding the Last Word, and reloaded it with a shell cartridge. "Not even close."

The door began to open, shaking the arena floor as it did so. Spectre materialized, and flew over to it. "For all the advanced tech the Vex uses, you'd think that they'd have higher recognition software. But no, kill the big bad Templar of the Vault, and the mechanisms think it's safe. Stupid computers."

She pointed at the door behind the Templar's smoldering corpse. "Through there is where we need to go. We still don't know who the hell that voice was, and we need to get the Heroes out of here. Ready?" Dawn patted her weapon assuringly, and Eager sighed in exasperation. "Let's do this."

-X-

The Vault of Glass seemed to be forcing them to trek more often than actually fight anything. Not that Scorch was complaining, but one would expect what was supposedly the lair of the Vex's most powerful evil to be a bit more… aggressive. In any matter, the Seekers had been traversing this most recent cave system for a nearly twenty minutes now. Only in the last few seconds did they finally see an opening, and were reinvigorated by the sight of progress.

Upon reaching the opening, they found that it widened out and became just a small hole in a phenomenally large cavern. Peering over the ledge of Vex-stone they stood upon, Scorch could just barely make out the bend of some sort of liquid flow, almost like a small river of Venus-mineral deposits. They glowed bright blue, and sparkled with what chemicals lay within them. What startled her the most was that these miniature rivers among the rock were easily a mile or more down from where they stood.

"Well, shit." Eager peered over the edge as he remarked on it. "That's quite the drop, huh?" Dawn shrugged. "We'll be fine. We've got jump-packs, remember?"

"What are we waiting for then? No time like the present." Before Scorch could even take two steps after what was supposed to be her badass one-liner, she felt Dawn's hand on her shoulder. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. See, I said that _we've_ got jump-packs. _You_ , on the other hand, are a Hunter, and your armor isn't really equipped with one of those."

Scorch gulped and looked down at the massive drop which she'd just about to plunge herself into. "Thanks for the tip. So how do I get down?"

Dawn held her hand up to the chin of her helmet, and contemplated for a moment. After a few seconds, she started slowly, "Well, there is a way, but you're not going to like it at all."

Just judging from the tone of her voice, Scorch could already tell that Dawn was right. "Alright, what is it?"

The Titan turned toward Spectre. "You've still got reviving capabilities, right? Assuming you have enough light on hand?"

The Ghost moved through the air cautiously, curious as to where this was going. "Well, yes. But why would we-" Suddenly, his eye narrowed, and he vibrated angrily. _"No. That is not happening."_

"What is it?" asked Scorch, though she already knew the answer. Dawn's response confirmed it; "If we can't get you down there alive, then we're going to get you down there a different way."

Eager held his hands up to stop Dawn's line of thought. "Okay, you've had some crazy ideas before, but this is a bit too crazy. I'm with Spectre on this one, it's too risky."

Dawn glared at him. "Look, we've got to rescue the Heroes, right? This is the fastest way to get to them, and besides, there's something… familiar about this idea, I just don't…" The guidance came to Scorch for yet another time in the Vault, and she could almost see a thin white trail leading down through the air to the ground far below. Scorch noted Dawn's deja vu, and realized what it meant. "If you're feeling a familiarity with the idea… then maybe that's how Ash, the Hero that you came from originally, managed to get their Hunter down as well. I mean, it's worth a shot."

Spectre tried to protest. "Scorch, please think rationally here. We're talking about _death_ here. It's not something to be trifled with, and is usually something one prefers to _avoid_." Scorch paid him no mind, and rotated her head questioningly to Dawn.

"Just jump off?" she inquired. Dawn nodded in confirmation. "Just jump off." Scorch waved at Eager and Spectre. "Well, see you guys at the bottom!"

Before either could stop her, she took a running leap off the side of the ledge, and disappeared into the darkness of the depths below.

Spectre peered over the cliff, watching Scorch's thinking figure, and then turned to Dawn. "You better hope this pays off, because if it doesn't, then you're responsible." With that, the Ghost hovered over the edge and flew off to find where Scorch would impact. Eager just shook his head.

"Look, I understand where you're coming from. You're experienced, a split personality from one of the Heroes, albeit without any memories of before. You probably don't have many qualms about something like this." He held a hand up before she could object. "Don't argue, you know it's true. And it probably helps in a lot of ways. But Scorch and I? I was just a city task force member a few weeks ago. Scorch? She wasn't even a Guardian."

He pointed to her. "What you've got to understand is that this isn't you and Aria and Matt anymore. It's you, Scorch, and me. We're a team, and we do things together or not at all. Understood?"

Dawn was mollified by what he'd said, and she silently nodded her head in submission. "Good." With that, Eager leapt off the ledge, intent on following Spectre and Scorch. After a moment alone on the top of the cliff, Dawn jumped as well.

Scorch felt cold air all around her as she fell fast through the air to the ground below. The only indications of how close she was to the ground were the glowing liquid rivers she'd spotted before. Their sparkling blue light steadily grew bigger in her field of view as she fast approached them. It was only then that she started getting second thoughts, and wondered how badly this was going to hurt. Would she feel it much? Every bone in her body shattering at once? Or would her consciousness immediately disappear until she was revived?

What if she wasn't revived? That thought came to her as a shock. But it was true, they were deep in Darkness territory. There was a possibility that Spectre didn't have enough light to revive someone. Either way, she'd have to live with the consequences. She was only about fifty feet before ground now, and she extended her hands purely out of instinct to prevent-

-X-

She was standing on some kind of rocky surface, just like the caves she'd just been in. But this was different, it wasn't in some cavern, it was outside, almost like she were on the outer edges of some volcanic region. The rocks jutted from the ground into the air, sharp and rough. Looking around, Scorch could see that for miles, there was nothing but patches of these volcanic-like rocky instances and relatively flat sandy dunes in all directions. Cold dry air blew through the land, causing her to shiver and draw her arms in for warmth as grains of sand flew through the air, pushed onward by the whims of weather.

She wondered where the hell she was. First she'd been falling, and then- _wait, was this the afterlife?_ If it was, it certainly wasn't impressive, unless she was supposed to be in awe over the raw emptiness of it. Indeed, the sheer vastness of it without any sign of life or otherwise was actually quite unsettling to her. She looked around once more for anything that could tell her where she was.

 _This is the Balance._ The voice, the same one from before came to her. She spun quickly around reaching for her holster, but found that her weapon wasn't there. "What do you mean?" she called, buying time for… hopefully something to get her out of here.

 _What you see before you, is what you will have wrought if you truly do bring about the Balance. Is this what you want?_

Scorch gasped slightly as she realized what it meant. Her destiny to activate the Balance was going to come to… this? This wasteland of destruction?

"Where am I?" She feared the answer, yet the voice only vaguely hinted, _Does it matter when this reality is true for everywhere?_

Scorch sank to her knees in anguish. If this had happened, or would happen everywhere… why was the Balance even remotely considered a good thing? How could something held in so bright a light come crashing down to something so… desolate?

"Who are you? Really?" She tried to get an answer out of the voice that plagued her. Surprisingly, it was unusually cooperative, though avoided specifics. _I take no name other than the one I give myself, and reject what fate had in store for me. I was the last before you, though we are different in our reactions to finding out about our pre-determined destiny._

"The last… hang on, are you…?" The name was on the tip of her tongue, yet refused to yield an answer. She racked her brains for the information, but it seemed to slip farther and farther out of her reach.

 _It is of no concern, all you need to know is my proposition._ The voice's tone had taken on a more seductive tone, as thought it were trying to persuade her. _Neither you nor I has any desire to see the world end like this. Join me, and together we can halt this, undo what fate has set in motion. It is the only way to prevent what will occur in future times._

Stopping this from happening definitely looked like a good offer. But there was something off about it, something she wasn't getting yet…

"Look, I don't mean to be rude. But I have a mission, and that mission is to save the Heroes, whether you like it or not." The voice snarled. _They will interrupt what we would seek to do, and perceive it as an act of war rather than one of mercy. They must not be allowed to interfere!_

She asked curiously, "So under no circumstances should I free them?"

 _Correct._

"Well then," she muttered, shrugging. "Looks like it's no deal from me. Better luck next time."

The voice screamed in fury, and she could feel it resonating within her skull, reverberating like a ball bouncing around the inside. She fell to her knees and watched as her vision went darker, darker…

-X-

"Scorch? Scorch, c'mon answer!"

She felt a warmth. Some kind of… sensation, much like there was liquid lava flowing through her veins. She felt powerful, strong…

Suddenly, the good feeling disappeared, and was replaced with a violent aching that she could feel everywhere on her body. It definitely wasn't still hurting, but it was more the memory of the impact that hurt. She can't have hit the ground longer than half a second, but it was still vivid in her mind, as was the pain apparently.

"You're lucky. Luckier than most." This all came from Spectre, who was floating over her face. The living polyhedron definitely had a tone of relief in his voice, likely due to the fact that she hadn't been stuck dead permanently. "I had enough reserves of light within me to revive you." Now, the Ghost turned to Eager. "I do apologize as well, but I had to use most of your spinmetal reserves to repair her armor…"

Eager sighed. "Better it than her, I suppose."

Dawn merely stood a few yards away, keeping an eye out for any signs of trouble. Scorch called to her, "Where are we?"

"Shhh." Dawn held a hand up to quiet Scorch. "Not so loud, we're not alone down here." Now the Hunter listened carefully, and true to Dawn's word, she could hear the sounds of _something_ dwelling down here in the deepest recesses of the cavern. It sounded like light squeals and electronic beeps, echoing around the walls of the chamber.

Scorch vibrated as usual when he was looking for information. "According to the tales of legend that the Vanguards told us about, there were several stages to the Vault. One, as we saw, was the Templar and its Oracles. I guess we know what those green things were now." He sorted through the data faster. "The next was the Gorgon's…Gorgons' Labryinth.

"Wait, Gorgon's as in possessive, like one? Or as in plural Gorgons?" Spectre spun quickly to narrow his eye at Eager. "How the hell should I know? For that matter, I don't even know what a single Gorgon is, let alone if there are multiple!"

"Guys." Dawn's small request for attention sounded wary. "Can we continue this later? Those sounds are getting closer."

Scorch pointed at the Titan, and looked at the other two. "I agree with this girl's plan. Let's move!"

Quickly but stealthily, the trio and Ghost began to jog as quietly as possible toward a wall of rocks they saw between two rivers of liquid-flow. Scorch turned to Spectre. "Can you use some echolocation or something to point us in the right direction?"

The Ghost bobbed in the air, and then hovered up and over the rock for roughly a minute. When he came back, he bobbed again. "I've got some decent pings of the place, and I think I can get us through here." Scorch waved her arm forward to show that he was allowed to lead them. Cautiously, he maneuvered himself to look around the corner of the rock wall. "Alright… follow me!"

Silently, the three Guardians trailed behind the Ghost as he sped towards a large rock structure that was protruding from the ground at an incline. Reaching frantically for grips and footholds, they scrambled their way up to the top of it. The beeps and screeches sounded close, but whatever it was was still out of sight.

"Alright, get to the top of the next rock!" said Spectre, indicating another massive chunk of rock that was shunted into the ground. "Why are we staying off the ground?" whispered Eager. The Ghost faced him. "Because whatever a 'Gorgon' is, I think it's meandering around the passages of the cave, looking for us." Specter's answer wasn't reassuring in the slightest, but it definitely answered the male Exo's question. Quietly, he took the first leap across the nearly four yard gap. With his built-in stabilizers, the Warlock made it safely across.

Scorch jumped next, using her momentum to propel her. She reached out and grabbed Eager's waiting arm as she began to fall down to the ground below, and he pulled her to the side of the rock. Clean and efficient. She waved backwards for Dawn to join them.

The Titan took a running leap, but apparently stood on too weak an outcrop of rock. The piece she'd stepped on crumbled under her weight, and she tripped. She fell down the twenty or so feet to the rocky ground, and landed hard on her front. Groaning, she began to push herself back up onto her knees using her hands, but stopped when she heard the electronic beeps and squeals alarmingly close. Very carefully, she slowly lifted her head to see what was in front of her.

It looked like a harpy, but much more disturbing. It was black and turquoise in color, with a whitish glow towards the rear that almost looked like moving fire. The colors of its body shifted constantly, like a chameleon's camouflage. Little antennae sprouted from all along its body, searching every direction for some target to lock onto. Dawn knew that the Vex were inorganic, but she'd heard rumors that they had originally once been biological, and this thing seemed almost… _alive_.

Its white eye spun around, still looking for her. She realized that it could not see her, and was likely either listening for sounds to pinpoint her, or was looking for signs of movement as some creatures' eyesight were based on. She held perfectly still as to avoid all chances of it becoming aware of her presence. As it slowly inched closer to her in its curious state, it took every ounce of willpower she had not to start sprinting to any place other than the one she was currently in.

It antennae reached forward, and began probing her helmet. She felt herself begin to shake slightly, but continued to endure. After a few moments or so, they retracted, and the Gorgon moved on back the way it had come, having not found anything to be of concern.

She waited at least ten seconds until it was out of sight to move again, and quickly ran to the side of the rock wall that Scorch and Eager sat upon up above. Once she'd climbed high enough, they reached down and helped her to the top.

"You have no idea how shot my nerves are…" whispered Eager concernedly, "I thought you were a goner." Scorch said nothing at first, but simply grabbed Dawn's shoulder lightly to comfort her. "You alright?"

Dawn nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit shaken up. It doesn't matter, we're running out of time. Where to now, Spectre?" The Ghost paused for a second before answering, likely out of respect for Dawn's bravery.

"Just through that hole down there. From what I can gather, there's a network of tunnels through there that will lead to where we need to go. Just wait for my go." Dutifully, the Seekers sat silently on the rock, poised to make a break for it as soon as the Ghost gave the word. The squeals and beeps became slightly fainter as the Gorgon moved farther away, and Spectre whispered, "Now!"

They were jolted into action, and vaulted over the rock face to the ground below. Absorbing the impact in their knees, they rolled and turned it into momentum, then continued to run through the hole that Spectre had told them about. The sounds they heard were nothing but the echoes of their armored feet hitting the ground repeatedly, bouncing off the cave walls. They did not stop running until they were absolutely sure that the Gorgon was not coming after them, at which point Scorch collapsed on the ground out of exhaustion, Eager aimed his gun at the hole where they'd come from to prevent any unwanted company, and Dawn walked through a man-sized crevice to see where they were going next.

"Whoa. Guys, come look at this." Dawn's voice came from the other side of the crevice, and Scorch and Eager looked at each other. Standing up from the ground, the Hunter jogged over to pass through the crack in wall, and Eager cautiously followed behind.

Upon exiting the crevice, Scorch found herself standing on a small ledge of Vex-stone overlooking yet another massive gorge. In front of them and across the chasm was a massive architectural marvel of Vex-stone that made up a series of peculiar structures, lining the entirety of the far wall.

"Well, that's probably where we need to go," muttered Eager, just now exiting the crevice. "But how do we get across?"

As if in response to his question, a large floating platform of cubic Vex-stone materialized in the air, appearing in a rapid wave of pixels. Scorch waved her companions forward. "C'mob, I'm pretty sure that thing's not gonna last forever!"

They leapt onto the platform just as another one began to come into existence slightly farther below, and in front of their current position. Before their eyes, the platform they were on began to dematerialize. "Run!" ordered Scorch, and the trio sprinted to the edge just in time to jump to the next stable ground.

They repeated the process several times until a platform brought them close enough to the far wall. "Alright, everyone get to that ledge!" Scorch pointed at an extended chunk of Vex-stone that stuck out from the wall like a landing pad. Heeding her advice, Dawn and Eager leapt off and used their stabilizers to boost them forward enough so that they made the distance to the ledge. Scorch followed them closely, pushing off with all the force she could muster in her legs.

Unlike previous times, she actually managed to stick the landing this time, and rolled forward with her momentum rather than coming up short on the jump. Standing back up, she looked to see the platform they'd just been standing on disappear in another pulse of pixels.

"I guess we just walk up there?" Eager indicated a passageway a few meters in front of them. Tentatively, they began walking through it. At the end of the hall, they could see a small staircase of broken, crumbling steps nearly ten feet in width, more than enough room for them to ascend together. Scorch took the lead, Dawn at her right and Eager at her left. From the age of this place, there was quite a bit of dust from the Vex-stone that had accumulated near the top. Dawn gasped, and beckoned for Scorch's attention.

"Look!" Gazing down to where Dawn was pointing in the dust, Scorch saw six sets of footprints. Three of them were old, old enough that the dust had literally formed solid around them, and their prints were now molds in the stone. But three of them were newer, and the set in the middle looked identical to the Hunter boot footprints they'd found on Venus.

"The Heroes," Scorch whispered, "they made it here." Eager gestured at the older ones. "Those ones there are almost unrecognizable. If I had to guess, they belong to Kabr, Praedyth, and Pahanin, the three in the legend of the Vault. I guess they _were_ real."

Scorch felt her skin crawling, This was likely the most dangerous place they could possibly be, not just at being in the Vex's stronghold, but at how little they knew. Who was the voice that had been talking to them? If there Heroes were here for five years, how had they not died in that time? Were they the ones who sent the signal? What was the conflux of time, the one that the Hall of Whispers had spoken about? What did her being a Child of Light have to do with this? Was the Balance truly good, or would it cause the destruction the voice said it would? All of this swam in Scorch's mind, threatening to overwhelm her.

The Vault decided that she'd had enough time to think. Without warning, a symbol engraved on the wall in front of them and the stairs lit up, turning a bright blue that glowed in the darkness. The symbol was of three triangles, each one inside of the next consecutive one. The smallest one, the one in the center, was split in two vertically. As they watched, the wall split along this seam and revealed itself to actually be an entry way. It revealed a large chamber inside, a sight which they all gasped at. Spectre hovered closer to them , also in shock.

"We made it… we're inside the Vault of Glass."


	9. Hunters of Light

The massive chamber they now stood in was symmetrical, with two diverging paths; one to the left, and one to the right. Everywhere they looked, Vex bodies lay strewn about and broken, rusting in their exposed state. In the center was a platform, isolated like an island. Farther ahead was where the two sides of the room came together again, to form a massive stage-like structure with a set of stairs to some area above. The most incredible thing, however, was the scenery.

Behind the far centric stage was an array of dazzling shattered glass, hovering about in the air like some art display. Broken pieces littered the area in the back of the room, forming a massive throne-like image above the stage staircase. It would have been almost beautiful, if Scorch hadn't been thinking about where they came from, which was from the lair of the Vex's ultimate conflux.

"Look," Dawn whispered to Scorch, and pointed at either side of the room. There were pillars with rings around them, much like the ones they'd used to get in the Vault in the first place. "Okay, so those obviously do something. But I wonder what…?" Her voice trailed off as she noticed the two Vex time-gates that were standing vertically in Vex-stone a few feet in front of each ring. She began to get an idea of what was going to happen.

"So we activate the time-gates, and then what? Just go through them?" Eager's question sounded as though he were frustrated, and Scorch didn't blame him. This whole mission had been one puzzle after another, and here they were at the heart of it all with yet another complication.

But once again, the guidance came over Scorch. There was a strong urge she had, one of the most overwhelming feelings as of yet, to head over to the pillar on the right, and stand inside its radius. She had already begun taking the first step when a sudden blue light began to emanate on the stage-like platform in the very back of the room. It glowed brightly, and Scorch felt a weight in her stomach, not unlike one where she'd swallowed a large rock. Within a few seconds, some massive being appeared, and Eager muttered, "Well, shit."

Standing where the light had been was a large Vex warrior. It looked as though its torso made up almost the entirety of its mass, with a somewhat upside-down triangular shape for a body, and a larger version of the signature white core that all Vex had in the lower regions of their abdomens. It had two large spike-like protrusions emitting from the back of its head, like the ears of a jackal. In the center of its head was a singular whitish-blue eye which immediately focused on them, and narrowed menacingly.

"I don't think it likes us very much," said Eager, and the new threat roared in confirmation. Vex soldiers began to pour in from all sides of the arena in response to its call. "Everyone, to the right!" yelled Scorch, and she took off sprinting for the pillar she'd been attracted to earlier. Dawn and Eager followed behind her, trying to avoid several bombardments of void projectiles that the large Vex had begun to fire from a cannon on its arm. Sliding into cover behind a raised block of Vex-stone, Scorch took a moment to catch her breath while red lasers from the other Vex danced around in the air. Dawn slid right next to her, and bumped shoulders. Eager fell into place next to her.

"Alright, what's the plan here?" she asked. Panting, Scorch racked her brains. They'd been trying so hard to get here, and now that they were finally where they needed to be, she was coming up blank. Taking a few deep breaths, she steadied herself and thought of a strategy. Scorch pointed at the pillar, and then the time-gate. "Those pillars have got to activate the time-gates like we thought. My… that feeling I get, the guidance? It's telling me to get in there. I need you two keeping this gate open no matter what while I get inside."

Dawn nodded enthusiastically. "No problem! C'mon, Eager. Let's do this!" Pushing herself upright, she grabbed Eager's hand and helped him up as well, then proceeded to step into the pillar's radius. Immediately, the white cubic lights began to appear, pixelating into existence to form a circular wall rising from the ring on the ground. A wavy sort of effect began to take shape in the center of the time gate, like a ripple in space. Suddenly, a portal opened where the effect had been, and stretched itself to the boundaries of the gate.

The Hunter looked at her Ghost. "Spectre, I need you to stay here in case they run into trouble. Whatever happens, they cannot be allowed to fail!" He bobbed in the air. "You can count on me, Scorch."

Scorch gave a quick nod to her companions. "Stay here, keep that gate open no matter what!" Dawn saluted her in confirmation, and then continued to fire upon a Harpy that had come a little too close for comfort. Eager waved her forward. "Just go, we've got this!" Heeding his advice, Scorch pulled the Last Word from her holster, clambered up the block of Vex-stone, and charged through the portal.

Eager looked over at the waves of Vex enemies approaching them, intent on stopping them from keeping the portal open. He sighed as he reloaded his weapon. "Today sucks."

-X-

Scorch felt herself fall onto the ground. Pushing herself up, she turned to see that she'd fallen out of the portal onto a large platform composed of Vex-stone. So she was still in the core of Venus? But then-

Looking up, she was surprised to see the sky. The implications of this suddenly made themselves abundantly clear in her mind as she looked around to see nothing but Vex structures all over the surface of the planet. This was a Venus that had been taken over completely by the Vex. Did that mean she was in the future, or what? Shaking her head to clear the unpleasant thoughts, she began to walk forward on the platform.

The sound of something metal clanking against the stone drew her attention. It appeared to have come from above a staircase in front of , she began to ascend the steps with her hand cannon drawn and ready to fire should anything jump at her.

When she reached the top of the staircase, she saw a long stretch of Vex-stone with nothing else in sight, save for a scrap of metal that looked to have belonged to a Vex body laying on the ground suspiciously. She walked over to it, and knelt down. She pondered on where it had come from before she heard a footstep and began to turn-

A fist came from behind her as she turned, and slammed into the side of her helmet, near her jaw. The shock of the impact forced her to relinquish her grip on the Last Word, and it fell away skidding across the ground. She leaned backward, and rolled over with her momentum to reach a standing position. Her assailant moved too fast for her to get a good look at them, and began to assault her again. She held her forearm up to stop a knife-wielding hand of the attacker, and used her free arm to smack them square in the solar plexus. Wheezing, they hunched over to gain their breath back, giving Scorch a chance to raise her leg up, and kick them in the abdomen, sending them reeling backwards.

"You're good, I'll give you that," said the attacker with a tone of respect in his voice. "But you've caught me on a bad day." It was a person wearing black Hunter armor with white highlights, though they had no cloak. Scorch's first thought was that they had scavenged the armor off of someone else.

Scorch raised her arms to show she meant no harm. "I don't want to fight you. I'm a Guardian of the city, and I'm-" He waved her claims aside before she'd even finished speaking. "There are no Guardians here. Believe me, we've checked. This is a future of Venus, and there's nothing but Vex here. So who the hell are you?"

The voice sounded familiar, and suddenly the 'we've' pronoun he used clicked in Scorch's brain, and she nearly collapsed from shock.

"You used to have white and blue armor, didn't you?" The attacker froze up for a second. "How- how would you know…?"

Two others came up behind the stranger, one wearing black and maroon Titan armor, and the other wearing similarly colored white and rose-highlighted Warlock garments to the ones that Scorch had seen all those years ago. "When you said you heard something, I didn't think you'd find this," said the Titan, gesturing at Scorch. The Warlock gave her a quizzical cock of the head and asked, "Who are you?"

Scorch shakily pulled the hood of her cloak back, and raised her hands up to grasp the sides of her helmet, pulling it away from the seal around her neck, and revealing her tousled brown hair and amber eyes, the latter of which were nearly brimming with tears at finally having found them.

"Matt… Ash… Aria!" She said their names with genuine joy in her voice, and they all seemed to be very taken aback by her enthusiasm. "Yes, those are our names. What about it?" asked Matt. Scorch took a deep breath, and began to explain.

"I've been searching for you for a while now, my entire team has… it's so great to see you all again!" Matt's head tilted slightly. "Again? Have we met before?"

Scorch jerked a bit. "Oh, right! I don't know if you'd remember, but my name is Scorch." Aria shrugged in confusion. "What kind of a name is Scorch…?" She stopped short as Scorch pointed to the long scar on her cheek.

Stunned, Matt began to take off his helmet as well for likely the first time in a while. Ash and Aria followed their leader's example, and removed the obstacles obscuring their faces. For the very first time, Scorch actually could see what they looked like. Matt, had short brown hair, green eyes, and basically looked like a normal human, whereas Aria had lavender colored hair tossed behind her and to the side in a sort of teenager style along with blue skin as an Awoken. Ash was surprisingly similar to Dawn; she was white with silver accents, and had bright electric blue eyes. There were a few differences, but by and large, she could have been Dawn's twin. The only real difference was that Dawn had more black accents on her as well.

"Oh my…" Aria beckoned to the Hunter. "Matt, it's… it's her! The one we saved in the battle for the Traveler!" He seemed to be in awe of the situation, and walked forward a few feet. "How-? How is this possible?" Scorch smiled. "Well, it's a long story, but basically-"

"Not that," he dismissed, "I mean your age. Last time we saw you, you were a thirteen year old girl, and that was two years ago. So why do you look like you're twenty?" Scorch's mouth quickly made an 'o' shape. She hadn't prepared for this, not yet anyway. She didn't know how else to tell them the truth other than launching into it, and getting it over with.

"Alright, well… this isn't the easiest to explain…" She scratched her head to procrastinate, much to the consternation of the Heroes. "What isn't easy to explain?" growled Ash. Scorch exhaled slightly. "You've been missing for five years, so it's technically been seven years since I last saw you."

Ash made a sound like she was choking, Aria gasped, and Matt simply stood there silent. "F-five years?" he stammered. Scorch nodded. "But that's impossible, we've only been here for… how long has it been, Seraph?" A Ghost popped up on his shoulder and looked at him. "It's been two weeks, three days, and eleven hours." Matt gestured at Seraph to Scorch. "See? So, how the hell have we been missing for five years?"

Seraph piped up once more. "Actually, it isn't too difficult to imagine. Considering that this is a potential future of Venus, and the time-gates are the only things linking this future to the past, once that connection is severed it would be nearly impossible to align those realities again. We're lucky that it managed to link up so close to our original time-line."

Scorch raised her hand for a question. "About that… how did you guys end up stranded here in the first place?" Matt sighed sadly. "It's a long story." Scorch continued to stare at him expectantly, showing she had nothing but time right now. He conceded.

"Well, we came here by suggestion of the Stranger. She mentioned how the Darkness was about to use another one of its many plans to end the reign of light, and well… it's kind of our job to stop that from happening." He gave a slight chuckle. "I'll admit, we were a bit arrogant. After we got our info from the Hall of Whispers in the Ishtar Archive, we realized we were a bit out of our league."

"How did you get around the mind-core?" asked Scorch. Matt seemed surprised. "You found it too? Honestly, it wasn't that difficult. Seraph ran an algorithm and found that they were able to imitate every likely action of ours, but also unlikely ones. She studied them and found one solution to run through the computer, and found that all the copies were forced to follow the action, but I couldn't."

Scorch raised an eyebrow. "And what action was that?" Matt smiled, and turned to his left where Ash was walking up to his side, also with a smile on her face. Continuing on with his explanation, Matt interlaced his fingers with Ash's. "She ran a simulation of me holding a gun to Ash. And I just… I could never do that. Nothing except for a computer could do that." Ash nuzzled her head against his, and Scorch realized that the two were in love. She'd never had an inkling of that before, but upon seeing it, she could only remark on how… odd it was for a human and an Exo to be together. Nevertheless, their relationship seemed genuine enough.

"How did you even get to the point where you started tracking us?" Scorch looked over at Aria's face which seemed curious. Scorch exhaled slightly.

"Well, to understand that, I've got to explain my side of the story." Aria nodded in agreement, and waved for her to continue. Scorch took a deep breath. "Well, when you rescued me all those years ago, my first line of thought was to become a Guardian like you three." She motioned to the Warlock. "You inspired me the most, telling me how we shouldn't let fear rule us, but use it to our advantage with bravery." The Awoken girl smiled happily that she had encouraged the now-Hunter.

"But, things didn't pan out that way. I lost my home, my family, and ended up living on the streets for a bit. Once Spectre, my Ghost, began taking care of me, I got into illegal Sparrow-racing to make ends meet for him and I. But I was called in by the Vanguards to help them solve a puzzle; a mystery transmission arrived at the Tower, originating from Venus. It contained two components; a corrupted message, and a soul."

"A soul?" asked Ash questioningly. Scorch nodded. "The soul was from you. You jettisoned a fragment of your old persona, the Warrior, either as a way to help and guide me, or simply to show that you all were alive. Maybe both?" But Ash shook her head. "I haven't done anything of the sort! We've sent all kinds of transmissions, but they didn't get responses; we couldn't send anything back to our own time without the portal open. And even then, that's a time-gate. It could end up anywhere in that network of realities."

Scorch was confused for a moment before the answer hit her. "Of course, because it hasn't happened yet! But now, the portal is open! You can send it now!"

Ash appeared doubtful. "I don't know, I'm not sure that time works that way…" Scorch shook her head to reject Ash's thoughts. "Of course it does, or at least it will; because it's already happened. You can't rewrite the past! Or, at least not yet, anyway."

The Titan sighed. "Alright, I'll try." Facing the portal down below, Ash screwed her face up in concentration, and her blue eyes began to wink on and off quite rapidly. After a few moments, the odd behavior stopped, and she nearly fell over. Matt leaned over and held her upright.

"You okay?" he asked. She nodded in his arms. "I think- I think it worked. You said that the personality is one of your team members?" Scorch nodded. "Yeah, we're the Seekers. Figured that we might as well have a cool name while we looked for you. In any case, once Dawn and Eager joined me, we set out to find you based on the messages's contents."

"I don't know why we'd need to send a message now of all times, considering you're already here," said Matt, and Scorch had to admit he had a point. Why would they send the other distress message when she'd just saved them? She shook her head, and decided to work out that mystery later. "Anyway, you never finished your story. What happened after you proved you were real?" Matt nodded, and picked up where they'd left off.

"After we proved we were real, the mind-core killed all of our copies, and summoned quite a few Vex to stop us. Lost my cloak in the escape, but I think we came away pretty decently. Fast forwarding a bit down the road, we ended up inside the Vault, evaded the Templar and Gorgons, and finally made it to Atheon's arena."

Scorch held her palm up to stop him. "Hold on, who's Atheon?"

Matt frowned. "Atheon is a large Vex leader, their conflux of time. With him still alive, the Vex hold a scary amount of power over time itself." Scorch snapped her fingers. "So that's who the conflux is, that's probably the giant Vex that I saw a few minutes ago." Matt nodded.

"Yeah. In any case, we knew to look for the other Aegis's, the last gift of Kabr. He created them as he died, for others to hopefully combat Atheon and the Templar. We opened a time-gate, and I went inside with Ash to find this one's Aegis, but the forces outside overwhelmed Aria, and she was forced to retreat into the portal. With no one outside keeping it open… we were trapped here, unable to do anything." He gestured around at the surrounding landscape, full of Vex-stone buildings and mossy growth. "We've been living off stored rations our Ghosts kept with them, but we expected to run out in about a month. If you hadn't found us…" He didn't finish the thought.

Scorch cleared her throat. "So, is Atheon the threat you were all hoping to destroy?" To her utter shock, Matt shook his head. "No. Atheon's control over time is worrisome to be sure, but… there is something, someone far more dangerous. See, Atheon only operates within limitations of his power, of the Vex's ability to travel through time. But there's someone who entered the Vault long ago, and literally became one with the conflux that lives within Atheon in order to find a way to change time itself. The only way to kill him is to destroy Atheon."

"Who is it?" asked Scorch. She remembered the voice in her hallucination; _Join me, and together we can halt this, undo what fate has set in motion._ As Matt said it, the name finally clicked in Scorch's mind, and Matt's answer confirmed her fears.

"Kaine, the Consumed."

"The Consumed…" A shiver crawled up Scorch's spine. Matt nodded. "We need to stop him, or he'll eventually take control of Atheon's abilities, and wipe out everything we've worked to build; all in the name of defying destiny."

 _Well, so far it has worked._ The voice which Scorch now knew belonged to Kaine, came from nowhere, and yet, seemingly everywhere at once. The Heroes immediately entered a combat position, and trained their aim on various areas in their line of sight. Scorch meanwhile, stood dumbfounded.

 _Scorch, you know that I'm right. I showed you what the Balance will do. All you need to do is leave them here, and it will never become a reality._ Startled, the Heroes turned to face Scorch with expressions of fear in their eyes. Scorch had originally thought that finding the Heroes was her destiny. But if her destiny involved bringing about the Balance and all that destruction, was it so wrong to turn away from it and save who she could?

 _Scorch…_ Kaine's voice sounded like the audio of temptation itself, and she made up her mind. No matter what, the Heroes were her priority, and she was getting them out alive.

"I'd suggest you put our helmets on, and get ready to kick some Vex ass." The Heroes smiled, and complied. As Matt fastened his own helmet on, Scorch suddenly held something out to him, and he turned to see what it was.

Sitting in her hand was the Hawkmoon. "Cayde said that I should return this to you when I found you… looks like I can finally do that." He picked it up with absolute care in his touch, his face full of awe. Locking gazes with her, he gave a quick nod of appreciation. "Thank you, truly. I've been missing this for a bit."

Scorch nodded in response, and began to reach back to her cloak. "Now that I think about it, I believe this belongs to you too…" He shook his head. "Nah, you keep that. You took a vow, and followed it through. That cloak is yours now, just a tradition of us Hunters. Take care of it." Pulling her hand away from the hood, she nodded again in gratefulness.

Matt grabbed a cartridge of ammo from his belt, and loaded the Hawkmoon. Scorch picked up the Last Word from the ground, and checked to make sure that it too was loaded. Ash and Aria appeared to be ready to leave, and waited at their leader's word. He turned to his Ghost which was zipping happily above his head.

"Seraph? I need the Aegis." A blue light began to appear in the air, and suddenly another Aegis like the one Scorch had used materialized in the air, landing neatly in Matt's arms. He turned to Scorch.

"These Aegis's are the only things that can damage Atheon; as a conflux of time itself, he can't be harmed by normal weaponry, only distracted. This one will help, but the other one needs to be found as well, the one in the other portal. Are you ready?" Scorch accepted this all without question, and gave a thumbs up without hesitation. He turned back to the portal.

"Alright… Heroes! And Seeker," he added, "let's do this!" Sprinting down the steps, all four Guardians ran up to the time-gate's portal, and charged through to the other side.

Scorch felt a rubber-band like feeling, as though she were being pulled back, and then snapped forward across time, skipping like a stone through reality. With a jolt, she landed on the other side of the portal, and looked around to see Eager and Dawn still in the ring, holding off waves of enemies. Eager noticed her.

"Where the hell have you-?" His question died in his throat as he saw who was with her. "Holy shit…" Dawn too, looked up to see Scorch and the Heroes standing there. "You did it Scorch! You found them!"

Scorch and the Heroes ran down the greet them. "Close the portal," she ordered, and both of her companions complied happily, stepping out of the ring immediately. The portal ceased to exist, and the time-gate stood empty once more. The waves of enemies that had come in response to the open portal had disappeared now that there was nothing to defend.

Ash walked over to Dawn and looked her over. Dawn did the same, and both had the same expression of mild discomfort on their faces. "This is…" began Ash. "Awkward?" Dawn supplied. Ash nodded. "Yeah, that's the word. I mean, are you like a sister, or a daughter, or…?" Dawn shook her head emphatically. "Let's go with twin, or friend alright? But definitely not daughter. Ick." Ash nodded. "Alright. Just so I know since you're a copy of me, you don't have any interest in Matt as well, do you?" Dawn shook her head. "No thank you, I may be a clone of you, but I'm my own person too. I've got no interest in taking anything from you whatsoever." Ash's voice sounded like she'd just grinned. "Alright then, We're good. Pleasure to meet you."

Eager waved both arms to get everyone's attention. "Hey, did we forget about the whole reason for us being here?" Everyone stared in bewilderment until they heard Atheon roar again from behind them. "Yep, kinda forgot about the big guy!" yelled Matt as he raised the Aegis on his left arm, and held up the Hawkmoon with his right. "C'mon, let's get to that other portal!"

Jolted into action by Matt's call, they began to sprint to the other side of the arena towards the left pillar. They went to work, standing inside the pillar's radius and preparing themselves for the onslaught of enemies. Matt turned to Scorch.

"Alright, you're up kid." She jerked abruptly. "Wait, me?" He nodded. "Yeah, you! We got this Aegis down, it's only fitting that you get the next one! Plus, with five people out here, we'll have a much better chance of keeping the portal open and not marooning you in time," he joked. She felt her knees get slightly shaky, but nodded her agreement all the same.

The time-gate opened right as Vex Goblins and Harpies appeared on cue. All of the other Guardians opened fire to prevent them from reaching the ring. "Go, now!" ordered Matt. Letting out a small breath, Scorch charged into the time-gate.

Once again, she didn't watch her footing and fell upon the ground on the other side. But this environment was much different than the potential future of Venus; this place was hot, rocky, and everywhere she looked there was nothing but chunks of rock, bits of Vex-stone, and grayish dirt. The air had a slight red tinge to it, making her first think she was on Mars; but then she realized that if the portal on the right had been the future of Venus, then this must be its past, before it had been terraformed by humans.

She walked cautiously. Like the other reality, there was a staircase here too. She walked up it just like she had the other one, and roughly twenty feet in front of her was the Aegis, hovering above the ground. She quickly ran to it, and grabbed it happily. It had been much easier than she'd expected.

 _Fool._ Kaine's voice appeared once again from nowhere, and she raised the Last Word to the air threateningly. "Leave me alone! You can't escape fate forever!"

 _Is that so?!_ His voice reverberated with unbound fury, and Scorch wondered whether she'd finally crossed the line. In a moment of complete surprise, a shadowy figure began to take shape behind her, blocking her way back to the portal. She furrowed her brows in frustration.

The shadow was obviously of a male figure, but it was pitch black like a void, and black-colored flames licked its body all around. _You've overstepped your boundaries young one. I offered you a chance to make a real difference, and you spat in my face. Now, you shall suffer the consequences, and see what a true master of time and destiny can do!_

His arms spread apart, and as they did so, a white aura began to glow around him. Just as Scorch wondered what the hell he was doing, the portal back to Atheon's arena disappeared in a flash of light, deactivated by Kaine.

"Wha…? NO!" she screamed. A deep raspy chuckle came from him, like the sound of a thousand snakes slithering over sandy ground. _Now,_ _let us talk._

There was a flash of light, and in an instant, neither shadow nor Guardian occupied the landscape and it was empty once more.

-X-

The other Guardians continued to fight the endless waves of enemies with determination in their minds and movements. The Heroes fought to repay Scorch's deed, and the remaining Seekers fought to keep their friend alive.

Suddenly, the time-gate switched off. All present stared at it in shock, not processing what had just happened.

"SCORCH!" Spectre cried, his synthetic voice full of pain and loss.

"What- is she gone?" asked Eager, his own pitch in tone unnaturally high. Dawn hesitated for a moment, then shook her head furiously. "No, I don't believe it! We hold this position, and remain here until that portal opens back up!"

Under Dawn's courage and rallying order, the Guardians were reinvigorated to fight, and the chamber continued to be filled with the sound of warfare.

-X-

Scorch opened her eyes, and saw that she was lying on the ground, head against a familiar looking terrain of sand. Standing up, she looked around to confirm her suspicions.

She was back in the destroyed landscape that Kaine had shown her before when he first spoke about the Balance. Everything down to the last crumbling rocky formation was identical, except now a shadow stood with her as well.

 _Need I remind you about this? What your fate will bring to those you care about?_ She shook her head to ward his persuasion away. "I already know, and I made up my mind. This can't be the whole answer. For all I know, this is the just what you want for the city, for Earth!"

Kaine shook his shadowy head. _You mistake me for some sort of genocidal maniac._ _My only goal has been to escape my predestination. Now, if something happens to be in my way… well, it must be dealt with accordingly._

Scorch jabbed a thumb at herself. "Well, guess what asshole? Now it's me that's in your way."

 _So it is._ He sounded resigned to this outcome. _Are you certain you'd like to continue along this path?_

Scorch held up her fists, one of which was holding her Hunter's dagger. "Not a doubt in my mind."

Kaine ground his teeth with the sound of scraping metal. _Very well._

With a speed that far outclassed her own, Kaine closed the distance between them and backhanded her. She went flying backwards through the air, and landed in a heap upon the dark grayish-black sand. She tried to stand back up, but found that her enemy had other ideas.

The Consumed had already made his way over to her, and proceeded to pick her up by the back of the neck with shadowy flaming arms. She could feel his touch burning the skin of her neck, and she cried out in pain. He simply laughed in the face of her torture, and threw her towards a cluster of the rocky protrusions coming from the ground.

She hit it back-first, and not only felt, but heard something crack. She reached down to her lower left side of her abdomen to find that one of her ribs had cracked. She would have asked Spectre to begin healing her, but realized with a dry feeling in her mouth that Spectre was still with the other Guardians. She was alone with…

Looking up, she saw him looming over her. He pulled one large fist back, intent on finishing her. Thinking quickly, she used one last option and held up the Aegis to protect herself. By her will, it fired a beam of energy like the ones they'd used against the Templar, and it hit Kaine in the center of his mass. The beam burnt a hole right through him, and sent him staggering backwards. Groaning, he looked down to see the gap in his chest. Scorch realized that something so dark as Kaine could never withstand the light of something so pure like Kabr's Aegis, created literally from his selfless dying mind as a way to help others.

 _I-impossible…_ he grunted, straining to keep himself upright. He looked up in time to see Scorch barreling toward him, Aegis in hand. Spinning artistically like a ballerina, she twirled and used her centrifugal force to drive even more power into the impact of the Aegis slamming into him. The blow caused him to completely lose his footing on the ground, and he flew backwards several meters onto the dunes of sand.

 _Ugh…_ He tried to push himself back onto his feet, but the sight of Scorch standing there with the Aegis stopped him. He glared at her, and she knew she had his attention.

"You forget that the very thing you have been attempting to destroy all your life gives me an advantage," she spat, her voice full of anger and determination. "My destiny gives me an advantage, an understanding that I _will_ beat you, and I _will_ save the Heroes." Kaine took deep breaths, struggling to regain his composure.

 _You… may have defeated this… ethereal projection of myself…_ he said each word slowly and with a malicious tone. _You may even destroy the conflux which lives within Atheon, and banish me from this realm forever… but this so-called advantage you think your fate gives you… it will turn on you quickly. You will not be able to escape it as I did for so long before it becomes your undoing. And in your final moments, as you perish under the culminant weight of all your sins against me… I will be there, watching, and reveling in your sorrow._

Scorch shrugged. "Get in line." And with that, she held the Aegis out, and let off one more bight beam of energy which engulfed the Consumed. He screamed in agony, until there was nothing left to scream, and his particles were systematically broken down and dispersed throughout the air. After she looked to see that he had truly gone, she sank to her knees in despair.

"What do I do now?" she asked aloud. She herself had no clue who she was talking to, but found it easier to imagine that she was directing the question at her guidance. It had influenced her so well before, but now… there was nothing. Had she fulfilled her destiny? Was it her fate to live out the rest of her life in this barren wasteland?

She thought about sending a transmission out, but remembered what Ash had said before; _We've sent all kinds of transmissions, but they didn't get responses; we couldn't send anything back to our own time without the portal open._ Even if she did try to contact someone, there's no way she could manage to reach them. With nothing else to do, she found herself reflecting back on the message.

Who had tried to send it? And better yet, for what purpose? It had sounded like someone had been trying to be rescued from being trapped, but she'd already saved the Heroes. So who else…?

A thought came to her. There was only one other person that it could have been, unlikely as it was. Although, the more she mulled it over, the probability seemed to increase. For Scorch to have begun her mission in the first place and make her way here to the Vault of Glass, there needed to be a message. So someone needed to send that message, and who was more equipped to do that than her? She was a child of light, she had more powerful connection with the light of the Traveler, and how it flows through the universe. Who's to say that she couldn't force her message through time? It was worth a shot at least.

"This is…" She thought hard for a moment on how to disguise her identity. "…a Guardian, reporting from the Vault of Glass. The lost are here, the lost Heroes are here! But they need someone to rescue them, someone to take on an urgent mission. They found something darker than any of us could have imagined." She debated whether or not to mention Kaine, and decided against it since she'd never known about him while embarking on the mission. She didn't want to rewrite time itself like the Consumed did. "In any case, you need to find Scorch, find Scorch and she will be able to save them."

As she spoke, she realized that the timelines perfectly coincided with one another, and she laughed in her awareness. "So that's why I'm a child of light! My being a child of light, the Balance, it all makes sense now! Or, at least the Balance part will later I'm sure." She shook her head, and focused back on sending the transmission. "Please, she's their last chance for survival. Over and…" Before she cut the connection, she looked around to see if the portal had reappeared, but there was nothing to be seen. "Oh, what's the use. Might as well transmit all I can."

Before she could give up, however, another unlikely thought occurred to her. Kaine, as a former child of light, had managed to completely sever her connection in time to the portal. Perhaps she, as another child of light, could remove the blockage, and allow the portal to reopen. She scrunched up her eyes in absolute concentration, and wished for nothing more than for her to escape this nightmarish place. As she did so, she felt an almost physical weight bearing down on her, as though she were literally lifting away the obstacle with her mind.

"C'mon, Scorch…" she muttered to herself with strain in her voice as the weight of lifting it was now affecting her actual body as well, with massive amounts of pain emanating from the region of her broken rib. With great effort, she mentally lifted it higher… higher, and… away!

Instantly, a white flash began to engulf her. "My God, it's opening!" The landscape around her disappeared, and she found herself back in the past of Venus, the reddish air surrounding her. Looking up, she saw that the time-gate had reactivated upon her arrival back in normal-reality. "We're gonna make it out of here after all!" With that, she severed the transmission connection, realizing that it was no longer needed.

Prehistoric Vex began to materialize into existence around her, with a seemingly universal goal of stopping her from reaching the time-gate. Done with dealing with similar encounters, her only response was to leap into the air, and let loose several Shadowshots. They planted themselves in both the ground and the chests of minotaurs, and latched onto every available Vex they could. Not stopping to stay and find out what would happen, she sprinted forth with every ounce of effort she had, and leapt through the portal.

There was another terrifying sensation of rubber-banding, as well as a free-fall like feeling. With a jolt, she landed on a block of Vex-stone, and looked up. The Heroes and other Seekers were there, still standing inside the ring.

"Close the portal! Quick!" she barked hoarsely. The others did so unquestioningly, and the time-gate ceased to be active.

"Scorch!" called Dawn happily, and she ran forward to hug her friend. Eager followed closely behind and placed his hand on her shoulder as Dawn was taking up most of the space. The Heroes walked over to her with smiles in their voices.

"Glad to see you made it out of there in one piece," said Matt. He cocked his head curiously. "What the hell happened though? First the portal turned off, and then-"

"It's a bit complicated to explain, but we've got bigger problems." Scorch turned and pointed at Atheon, still looking at them with hatred. "He needs to die, NOW, or else Kaine will have won. I've seen what he's capable of, and needs to be stopped."

Matt nodded in understanding, and hefted up the Aegis on his arm. His entire body began to crackle with electricity as he gave his speech; "You heard her people, this thing has lived for five years longer than it should have! We're taking it down TODAY!" Aria produced a ball of void energy in the palm of her hand in response, and Ash summoned a flaming hammer from the air, which engulfed her entire body in flames.

"Well… that's pretty cool," Eager said with an admiring voice, and responded by conjuring up a flaming palm of his own. Dawn's fists began to charge with Arc energy, and Scorch let herself get into it a bit, feeling a powerful aura surround her body, and her hand holding the Last Word ignited in purple fire.

Like a well oiled machine, they charged perfectly in line with one another into the fray. Atheon bellowed in anger, but he didn't have much of a say in it. The other Guardians kept him busy with tactics like a Fist of Havoc or Nova bomb to the chest, lighting him on fire, and in Scorch and Matt's case, firing projectile after projectile of light beams into him. Perhaps at one point the Vex would have appeared to be formidable, but with all six of them fighting him at once, each felt invincible, knowing that if any of them were to fall into trouble, there'd be five other Guardians backing them up immediately.

Atheon's body was smoking now from every joint and servo on his body. "Not much longer now," called Scorch, "just a bit more!" Matt yelled to her from across the arena, "Alright then, let's go for one more effort!"

Meeting in the center, the duo combined their final beams of light to form one massive blob of energy that blew right through Atheon's chest, and obliterated his insides. As the conflux within him began to die, Atheon wasn't the only one that Scorch heard screaming out in pain. Kaine the Consumed's voice cried to the heavens, though it received no answer as his very soul was banished to whatever hell that death would take him to. After several seconds, his cries of anguish ceased, and there was nothing left but the smoking corpse of Atheon.

All six Guardians stared at it, panting heavily. Eager was the first to speak, his question directed at Scorch; "So, is that it?"

Scorch laughed. "Yes, that's it. We did it!" Everyone cheered, and both the Seekers and the Heroes gathered together in one large group of excitement. Scorch and Dawn hugged again as Aria and Eager high-fived one another. Matt and Ash pulled each other into a tight embrace, and looked lovingly into each other's eyes.

"Uh, guys?" Aria looked over at Matt and Ash who hesitated for a moment before giving the Warlock their attention. "How are we supposed to get home? I highly doubt that the Javelin is still sitting around in orbit any more."

Scorch raised her head to look at the Awoken girl. "Don't worry, we've got ships. We're more than willing to take you on as passengers."

Matt nodded his thanks. "Alright then teams, let's go! I don't want to stay in this place any longer than we have to."

-X-

Scorch flew the ship in silence with Matt taking up the spare seat behind her. Each of the Guardians had buddied up with their respective counterpart on the Seeker's team. She couldn't imagine how awkward that had to be for Ash and Dawn, and it gave her a small chuckle.

"What's so funny?" asked Matt curiously. She got herself back under control. "Oh, nothing, just a stray thought."

"Alright." Matt allowed her a few more seconds of silence before talking again; "So, five years. That's really how long we've been gone?"

"Yep." Scorch tried not to say too much on the subject in case he was touchy about it. Apparently however, he was a bit nonchalant. "Well, at least it's not as big as the last time I was pulled out of time."

"The last time?" she questioned with curiosity in her tone. She turned around in her seat to see him nod. He walked over to her and explained, "I was just a normal guy on Earth when the Traveler first came. But one thing leads to another, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up centuries after my death with this little gal yelling that I'm some sort of Guardian." He playfully pointed to his Ghost, the one he called Seraph. Her blue eye pulsed slightly out of affection. He faced Scorch once more.

"As for you, I believe you said that you only joined the Guardians so that you could help find us?" Scorch nodded. "Once, I wanted to be a Guardian like you three, but after the way the Vanguard ignored my situation… all desire for that died."

He nodded understandingly. "Okay. And now? Will you stay a Guardian?" She hesitated.

"I think… regardless of what may have happened, I know that I can do a lot of good as a Guardian. And so long as I'm making a good impact and helping others, that makes me happy to be called a Guardian."

She looked at him again to see an approving smile on his face. "Good choice."


	10. Uneasy Future

Scorch didn't really know quite what to expect. Definitely excitement, definitely some form of celebration, but… she wasn't nearly prepared enough for what really happened.

As their ships landed in the hangar, the three Vanguards came out to greet them, followed by a large number of Guardians who were curious about what was about to happen. Matt remarked, "This seems a bit familiar, I'll admit." He chuckled lightly, and looked over at Scorch. "You're not really the 'attention-seeking' kind of girl, are you?" She shook her head.

"Well, today you are. Come on, let's show them who the savior of the day is!"

The docking ramp descended slowly in unison with the other two ships nearby. The audience below watched with bated breath as Scorch walked down the ramp first, helmet off so that the Guardians could see her smiling.

Ikora gasped at Scorch's apparent happy mood. "You don't think- could she have possibly-?" In answer to her question, Scorch stepped out of the way to reveal another Hunter stepping down the ramp, a familiar Hunter at that.

The crowd sounded like one large sentient creature as cheers and ecstatic screaming erupted from it. The Vanguards rushed forward, urgent to see if what their eyes were telling them was true. On the other docking ramps, the remaining Seekers and Heroes revealed themselves as well, and walked over to Scorch and Matt.

The three Vanguards stood in front of all six of them, awestruck. "You… you actually found them…" whispered Ikora with tears in her eyes. "Of course they found 'em, what'd I tell ya?" said Cayde. Obviously he held no tears, but something about his voice wavered a bit.

Matt extended his hand and gripped Cayde's hand in a firm grasp. "It's great to see you too, Cayde. Believe me, it's been a lot longer for you all than it's been for us." The Exo Hunter laughed, and in a rare moment of genuine emotion from him, brought Matt into a bear hug after having finally been reunited with his favorite apprentice. After a moment, he pushed Matt away again. "Alright, we can't be that close all the time. Don't get too touchy-feely on me."

Ikora was a little more reserved, and simply held Aria in her sight. "You… I never thought that we'd see any of you again, it's been so long…" Aria chuckled. "Well… here we are!" Ikora laughed. "Yes, I suppose you are, and how great it is!"

Zavala and Ash were chortling about moments on the Heroes' mission. "And while we were exploring that Venus-future, Aria nearly fell off one of the edges. At this time, sure it was frightening, but I tell ya, the look on her face…!" Zavala guffawed rather than keep his usual face of protocol, and slapped her heartily on the back.

As the Heroes talked to their mentors, the crowd surged forward and tried to each get a good look at them, each clambering to see if they were truly real. But one person stood out from the rest, and approached them.

"Well done, child of light." The Speaker's quiet tone was subtle, but filled with joy. That was all the appreciation that the Seekers needed. "I see that you succeeded in your quest."

"That we sure did," replied Dawn. She looked over at Ash a ways away. "You know, I think I'm gonna hang out with her for a bit, learn a little more about my original. Excuse me." She jogged over to where the other Titan stood, surrounded on all sides by enthusiastic Guardians.

"Yeah, and um, I've got some task force stuff to catch up on. Y'know, the whole 'being gone because I was looking for the lost Heroes' thing." He too walked away, leaving Scorch and the Speaker alone together.

"How would you say that your mission went?" asked the Speaker with a tone of curiosity in his voice. Scorch sighed.

"Speaker… I met Kaine, the Consumed. I managed to defeat him against all odds, and yet… he showed me something. The Balance, something you revered so highly… it hasn't happened yet, but he showed me something that makes me hope that it doesn't happen for a long time. It's not what we thought it was, and I just don't understand it yet."

The Speaker gave a small hum of contentment. "Scorch, if we understood half of what the Traveler can do… well, we wouldn't need a Traveler. But as it is, we are forced to deal with these events as they come, and to process them later. What you saw may have very well been exactly what you thought it was, whatever that may be. Or… there may be something you just don't know yet." And with that, the Speaker turned around and left to join in the celebration, leaving Scorch to contemplate on what he meant.

Maybe he was right. Maybe there was just something she didn't get yet. She walked over to the edge of the hangar, and sat on the edge, allowing her legs to dangle over the side.

In any matter, she knew that she was ready. Or, at least she would be. With her team at her side, and the Heroes here to help guide her, she knew that reaching her final destiny would be that much easier. Though what exactly lay at the end of the road, she wasn't sure of. But she was certain that it was going to be a hell of a time getting there.


	11. Epilogue

The moon was silent, and all was calm in the landscape, save for one small bit of movement near the Hellmmouth, the Hive's hellish pit that extended far down into the core of the stellar body. At the very edge of it, a grunt could be heard, one of great exertion and pain.

As the sun shone down upon the lunar surface, a hand shot out from over the edge, and grabbed the top of the cliff. Heaving their body up and over the boundary of the sinkhole, they climbed onto the lit area of the moon's atmosphere, and immediately crumbled to the ground in pain from the shock of seeing such bright light after so long in nothing but the squalid and filthy darkness.

As she writhed on the ground, a rumbling could be heard down below, the growl of a predator that had just lost its prey. Shakily, the individual picked themselves up and continued to run away from the pit, wherever her legs would take her.

She didn't yet know it, But Eris Morn had a large part to play in the events to come, one that would shape how the future unfolded; whether it would live on in freedom, or fall to slavery in the shadow of a monster.

The return of Crota was at hand.

END OF "HUNTERS OF LIGHT"

TO BE CONTINUED IN "GUARDIANS NEVER DIE" PART 3:

"THE DARK BEFORE DAWN"

Author here again! Man, it's been a wild ride, hasn't it? Two novel-length stories in half a year, I think that's pretty damn good. In any matter, I'm excited to see how you all react to the conclusion of "Hutners of Light", and how many of you will stick around to see the the third installment of the "Guardians Never Die" series! I want you all to know that all of your reviews, your favoriting, and even just reading the story actually does make an impact on me, and motivates me to keep going! I'm going to see this series through to the end, and I hope you follow me along for the journey!

-Matteoarts


	12. THIS STORY IS NO LONGER ACCURATE

ATTENTION:

The current book you are reading has not been updated along with the versions in the collection, so the information here is no longer accurate.

If you would like these stories in their updated/revised versions, you can simply go to my story page by clicking my username, and select "Guardians Never Die" from there. That is the collection of the books in their updated forms, and will remain that way in the future.

These versions of the books will no longer be updated, and will instead be written and added to the story listed above.

Thank you for understanding!

-Matteoarts


End file.
